Boys of Summer
by 50ftQueenie
Summary: We walked out of summer school at eleven o'clock. We'd told our parents that we were there for the long haul. They had no reason to believe that we were anywhere else from ten until two Monday through Thursday until the end of July.
1. Chapter 1

SE Hinton owns The Outsiders.

Happy summer. Let me entertain you. I wrote this chapter two years ago, just found it again and kind of liked it.

**Boys of Summer**

June 1965-

**One**

We walked out of summer school at eleven o'clock. The only reason we were both there was because I blew off an English paper and Sylvia failed a couple of Algebra exams. We didn't have an entire semester to make up, just some loose ends. We told our parents, though, that we were there for the long haul. They had no reason to believe that we were anywhere else from ten until two Monday through Thursday until the end of July.

Two-Bit Mathews was a potential fly in our ointment. He was there for the duration, as was Tim Shepard. He knew me well enough to know that something was up when I walked up to Mr. Anderson's desk at 9:30 and slapped my paper on something in Hamlet down and then returned to my desk to finish Sylvia's biology. That was the only way we had any hope of getting out of there. Syl could do her own algebra, but we'd be there until next July if she had to do the Biology too.

When I finished that, I went back to my desk- again- and laid my head down. Sylvia turned in her algebra exams and Mr. Anderson left the room to take them to their respective teachers to be checked.

"Hey, Cammy," Tim said. "How about you do my American Lit for me?"

I turned my head in his direction, but didn't lift it up.

"What's in it for me?"

"Meet me down in the west lot at lunch, and I'll show you what's in it for you."

Sylvia clicked her tongue at him in disgust and he clicked his back louder and said, "_God, Tim_…" before she could get it out.

I turned my head away again so that he wouldn't see me grinning.

"No deal," I said. "You're on your own. I got plans, and it's been a couple of years since I read Huck Finn anyway."

"Well, it Shepard ain't read it all, so you're still ahead of him there," Two-Bit said. "What kind of plans you got, Cammy?"

"Plans that got nothing to do with you," Sylvia answered for me. "Or Shepard."

"Plans that got nothing to do with you or Shepard," I confirmed and Two-Bit smirked. He had his eye on me now, though, and he was curious. Sylvia and I were in grave danger of being busted.

I hid my face in my folded arms again and hoped he'd get distracted. Maybe he'd work on the semester's worth of work he'd blown off. Two-Bit always had at least two or three subjects to keep him busy in summer school. He always finished the summer with plenty of work still left to finish.

"What if I say 'please', honey?" Tim tried again.

"You ain't going to do that."

"I just did. Come on, kid. We'll divide it up. I'll do my share…"

"Genius, it's all your share," I told him. "It's your work. I ain't doing any of it. I'm not the one who's still in a sophomore English class because I spent all my time skipping and making the world a safer place to be a greaser. Or whatever it is you do."

"Yeah, that's what Tim does," Sylvia said, and he flipped her off.

"I promise I will make it worth your while, Cammy," Tim said to me. "No fooling around. Cut me a break here, and I'll make it worth your time. Pretty please."

I stretched my arm out in his direction and wiggled my fingers.

"Make it something I can finish before Anderson comes back. Then you're on your own."

He gave me a bunch of mimeographed papers- questions about Flannery O'Connor. I remembered this unit from earlier in the year. How many English classes was Tim behind in?

"You know there's drag racing in this book?" I asked him. "And sex. There's sex and drag racing, and you still didn't read it?"

"I live it," Tim said. "Don't need to read about it."

I had nothing to say to that. Two-Bit inched his chair across the floor to have a closer look. He had the same worksheets to finish.

"Damn, I didn't know that. Mrs. O'Brian didn't say anything about that."

"Yeah, no idea how to sell a novel," I said.

I swung my desk around so that we were sitting side by side and started to write. Two-Bit began writing, too, and occasionally I'd tell him how to change the wording so it wasn't too obvious that he was copying. I don't know why I gave a damn- it was Tim who would hang for it, not me.

We had almost finished when Eddie Curran came scurrying back through the door to say that Mr. Anderson was on his way back. Eddie had taken an extended break to the restroom- his real agenda being to smoke, and so knowing Anderson's whereabouts was high on his list of priorities.

Two-Bit slid his desk back in place and I handed Tim his papers.

The door opened and Mr. Anderson entered, scowling.

"Sylvia and Camille, you may go." I don't know why he was so pissed off about it. I'd have thought he'd be happy to be rid of two more bodies. Maybe he knew I was doing Tim and Two-Bit's American Lit, and figured that- without me- the chances of them ever finishing was grim.

"Have a nice summer," I said to Tim as I stood and headed towards the door.

"Yeah, stay out of trouble."

"Always," I replied and Sylvia shoved me through the door before I could continue talking to him.

"Why do you talk to him?" She snapped at me once we were safely halfway down the hall.

"You talk to him."

"When I have to. Like when I want him to shut up or move out of my way. You have actual conversations with him."

I thought about that. Nothing that had ever transpired between me and Tim seemed to me to qualify as a conversation. Thinly veiled sexual innuendos, barbs about how dumb his gang was or what I bookworm I was.

"If that's what you want to call conversation. Is that what you and Dally call conversation?"

"Ugh. Do not mention his name," she groaned wrinkling her nose. We'd made it down to the parking lot and Sylvia had stopped to straighten her skirt in the side mirror of someone's dad's Plymouth.

"Dally, Dally, Dally," I said to her from a safe distance. "What'd he do now?"

"More like what he didn't do. He's supposed to be up there, too, you know." She nodded up towards the second floor of the school building. Something was drifting down out of the window from the classroom we just come from. It was a paper airplane. I figured it was Two-Bit's work.

"So, he just flunked himself out?"

"Yep," she said. "And they told him if he did, they were done with him. Too many behavioral referrals, too much skipping, no show of fortitude or foreshadowing or something."

"I'd guess the first one. Dally's got plenty of fortitude, though. Obviously, they've never met his old man."

"Yeah, no shit, but they said they were going to toss him none the less, and my guess is now they have. Are you going to get that?" She nodded towards the paper airplane which had almost spiraled into the hedges at the ground level of the school.

That was why Sylvia would always be cool and I wouldn't. She had knowledge of all these secret modes of communication. She could read faces and bodies. She always said Tim was flirting with me when I thought he was just being nice.

"When have you ever known Tim to just be nice?" She asked me, and I had to admit she was right.

I never would have thought to go pick up the paper airplane if Sylvia hadn't pointed it out. I jogged across the lawn and plucked it out of the hedge. I looked up towards the second floor for signs of Two-Bit, but he wasn't visible. I walked back towards Sylvia, unfolding the airplane as I went.

The message within wasn't from Two-Bit, but from Tim. All it said was "I owe you."

"What's it say?" Sylvia asked.

"That Tim owes me."

"Lucky you."

"Yeah, lucky old me," I said.

We started to walk across the street towards the Dairy Freeze. The parking lot was already filling up with cars. We were sure we'd know the owner of one of them well enough to catch a ride downtown. This was all part of the plan.

Before we got to the street I turned and looked back towards the second floor of the school. The window had been shut, most likely by Mr. Anderson. They were going to fry in there. The morning dew had melted off and the air was already getting heavy and thick. It was going to be a sweltering afternoon.


	2. Chapter 2

SE Hinton owns it.

**Boys of Summer**

**Two**

I didn't have a lot of experience with the Curtis boys and their so-called gang. My sister did, and she'd driven the proverbial nail into that one a few years before. My sister, Jolene, had dated the oldest brother Darryl when they were in high school. She'd fooled around on him, broken his heart, and that sort of branded me with the lot of them because high school is the most gossipy, incestuous place ever and all those guys assumed I must be just like my sister.

Except Two-Bit Mathews. He seemed to like me alright. He seemed to like everyone, though, as long as they grew up within a half-mile radius of his own house. I fit that qualification, and I was blonde. That's all it took for him to keep talking to me even after Jolene shattered Darry Curtis and ground her heel into his heart.

The other member of that crowd I still had some contact with was Dallas Winston. I was friends with Sylvia, and she and Dally went steady when the mood took them, although usually it took them at different times. Neither one had any interest in being faithful to the other, it seemed. Being faithful wasn't what high school was about, according to Sylvia. I could hardly say I knew.

Sylvia and Dally had a habit of not being able to stay out of each other's hair, and they were about to tangle again just now. I spotted him before she did. He was leaning on a black Fairlane on the other side of the Dairy Freeze, just waiting to be noticed like a snake in the sun.

There was a bus coming down the street. I could've suggested that Sylvia and I get on it and avoided an intercept with Dally for the moment. I didn't bother. Lot of good it would have done. If he wanted attention from Sylvia, he was going to get it. Dally would cross hell and high water to start an altercation with Sylvia. No cross-town bus in Tulsa was going to outrun him.

"Son of a bitch," Sylvia muttered. She'd spotted him too.

"Just ignore him," I said.

"That's just what he wants me to do."

"That's what I want you to do, too."

She rolled her eyes at me and opened her purse.

"Order for me, then. Get me a Coke and some fries."

"Breakfast of champions," I mumbled and took her money.

I stepped up to the window of the Dairy Freeze and tried to ignore what was about to go down between Sylvia and Dally. The girl at the register was a classmate of ours and I envied her summer job. I had nothing to look forward to but babysitting, which wasn't going to afford me the kind of social interaction at gig at the Dairy Freeze would. I was reliant on my evenings off with Sylvia- when she wasn't spending them with Dally- for my social opportunities.

"Hi, Cammy. What can I get for you?" The girl's name was Rochelle, and I was surprised she knew my name. I was going to be a senior, I guess. Everyone knew your name if you were a senior. Three years of being an underclassman had taught me that. You knew all the senior's names and imagined amazing lives for them.

I ordered Sylvia's Coke and fries and a drink for myself. I wasn't really hungry.

From the corner of my eye, I saw Dally try to slip his arm around Sylvia's shoulders and then watched her duck away. Dally was laughing at her, and she was getting steamed over it. I don't know what transpired next- Rochelle was counting out my change- but it made Sylvia cry. Sylvia cried when she was angry, so it was just as likely that she was pissed off as it was she was hurt. She stormed past me mumbling that she was going to the restroom to "fix this"- meaning her eyeliner. I smiled at Rochelle, and took my order over to a picnic table that was reflecting heat like the sun itself.

I should've gone to the restroom after Sylvia. I knew Dally was going to come over and start with me. Maybe I wanted him to. Sometimes it was fun to fight with him. I was better at it than Sylvia. He couldn't make me cry.

Dally leaned back and sat on the table next to me so that my face was eye level with his crotch. I was sure that couldn't be by accident. He took a drag of his cigarette and spoke without looking at me.

"I hear you're done with summer school."

"I hear you are, too," I said.

He smirked.

"So what kind of big plans you got, then?"

I shrugged. "You know, long days at the beach, nights at the club. Wine, women, and song. What about you?"

"I like the sound of that."

"Know any good songs?" I asked. I didn't want to talk with him about wine or women.

"Yeah, actually, I do," he said. He slipped his butt down on to the bench to sit unnecessarily close to me. I could about guess what was coming. "It's a new one- it's called 'Come See About Me'. By some girlie group. Normally, I'm not into groups of chicks. They make me nervous, but maybe just one chick…if she was to- say- hurry up and…"

I burst out laughing. I had to wrinkle my nose to keep Coke from coming out of it.

"What?" Dallas said. "What the hell's so funny about that?"

"You know all the words to a Supremes song. That's awful tuff of you, Dally."

"Why don't you shut the hell up? I was bullshitting you anyway."

The way he said it made me sure that he wasn't bullshitting at all.

"Can't bullshit a bullshitter, Dally," I said to him.

"Yeah, I heard that about you. Runs in the family, I hear."

If he thought he was hurting my feelings, he was high as a kite. My sister Jolene hadn't come to much after she let Darry Curtis down. She'd graduated and married my brother-in-law, who worked for the railroad. She was alone a lot, but we'd never had the kind of relationship that made me want to run down to her little apartment by the tracks and keep her company.

"Does it?" Dally said.

"Does what?"

"I said that I heard it runs in the family. Are you the same kind of bullshitter as your sister, Cammy?"

"You're never going to find out, Dal, so quit worrying about it. Maybe worry that I might teach some of my tricks to Sylvia."

Dally rolled his eyes over that. He flicked his cigarette across the parking lot.

"If I didn't know better, I'd say you already have. Sylvia was born with her own set of tricks…" His voice trailed off. He was waiting for me to ask him to elaborate or call him on his innuendo. I shrugged and did neither.

"You don't think much of girls, do you, Dally?" I said.

"I think about girls plenty."

"No, I mean you don't think highly of us. You don't respect us."

"It's nothing to get bent out of shape about. I don't respect most people. You know who I do respect, though?"

I took a wild guess. "Tim Shepard?"

Dally snorted. "Yeah, right. That little mama's boy…no, I respect Darry Curtis. He's a stand-up guy. Watching a girl like your sister chew him up and spit him out…let's say it's changed the way I think about girls."

"And you think every girl must be just like my sister? Christ, Dally, that was three years ago. What you're talking about seems so much more deeply rooted than that. Were you even living here then? Weren't you living in the big, bad city with your mom? What you're talking about sounds like mommy issues."

Dally grinned. He shook his head and pulled another cigarette out of his front shirt pocket. He felt around the collar of his t-shirt for the ring he liked to strike his matches on.

"She's still got it," I reminded him. "That stupid ring you stole for her, she's still wearing around her neck. Like a noose, if you ask me."

"Who's asking you?"

I sighed, but it was all drama. "It must mean there's still hope for the world of Dally and women, if you haven't demanded that ring back yet today. It's been- what?- a staggering forty-eight hours now?"

"Why don't you suck my dick, Cammy?"

The voice from over his shoulder made both of us sit up straight. I'm sure the hairs on the back of Dally's neck stood on end. I just cracked up.

"What did you just say to her, Dallas?" Sylvia had returned from the restroom, and with a vengeance. "God, she's my best friend. Have a little respect…"

"Funny, we were just discussing that," I said. I winked at Dally and stood up. I brushed my skirt off. I couldn't help but notice Dally watching my hands on my thighs as I did it. It wasn't lost on Sylvia either.

"Pig," she said. She picked up her Coke and I handed her the bag of fries. We started off towards the bus stop.

"Hey, where you going?" Dally called after us.

"None of your goddamned business," Sylvia told him.

People at the Dairy Freeze stared. I'm sure Dally and Sylvia couldn't have been happier.


	3. Chapter 3

SE Hinton own The Outsiders, my summer playground.

I'll toss one more chapter up, and then call Wednesday my update day after this. I just accidentally deleted a chapter, so I need time to mourn and recover.

**Boys of Summer**

**Three**

What happened next was the stuff Sylvia's dreams were made of. We got cut off in the middle of the street, on our way towards the bus stop, by Tim Shepard and two other guys in a Chrysler. I had to jump back to save my toes.

"Where you headed, ladies?" Tim asked through the rolled-down window.

"Anywhere but here," Sylvia accepted his invitation without actually knowing what it was. All she knew was Dally was about to watch her get in to Tim's car. That was good enough.

"Damn, Shepard," I said. "Are you some kind of speed-reader now?"

He glared at me, and his eyes darted back towards the other guys in the car. He said in a voice low enough that they couldn't hear: "Sex and drag-racing, baby- did you really think I didn't read that book? It was just Huck Finn that I didn't read."

I shook my head at him. "So I was doing your Flannary O'Connor work why?"

"Because I said 'please', remember?"

"I believe you said 'pretty please'," I reminded him loud enough to get the attention of his passengers. "With sugar on top."

"Do you want a ride or not?" He jerked his head towards the backseat. That was my punishment for teasing him, I guess: I had to ride in the back. Sylvia was still tugging on the door handle. It wasn't cooperating.

"What is wrong with this thing, Tim?" She said.

Tim turned and yelled to guy in the back: "Hey, Mikey, pop the door."

Mikey, near as I could tell, hit the door handle with the side of his fist and it opened. I made a mental note not to lean against the door and got in after Sylvia.

"'No man with a good car needs to be justified'." Tim said, and winked at me in the rearview mirror.

"You'd better start justifying yourself then," Sylvia said. She had no idea that Tim was quoting from a story we were supposed to have all read. Sylvia hadn't read it.

Tim gave her the finger.

I said, "It's 'nobody'."

"Huh?"

"In the movie, it's 'no man', but in the book it's 'nobody'," I told him.

"What's the difference?"

"Nobody is a little more inclusive, don't you think? Could mean a woman with a good car, too."

"You got a car, Cammy Leigh?" Tim asked.

I shook my head.

"Then shut your trap. Don't make me justify myself."

He dropped the pedal. A sparkplug misfired and took a moment to catch. There was a brief second where nothing happened, and then the engine accelerated and the force of it pushed us all back against our seats and then forward again. I closed my eyes and imagined we were on a rocket speeding into space.

I lay my head on Sylvia's shoulder and she laid her head against mine. I watched the streets fly past the window and tried to guess where we were going. The Ribbon would've been my first guess with Tim behind the wheel: food, fights, people-watching and gossip. He wasn't going that way, though.

I wanted to ask, but I didn't want to appear nervous.

A few more blocks went by before he asked us: "Y'all want to go to the dam?"

"And do what?" Sylvia asked.

The answer was obvious: go swimming. Since none of us had swimming suits, it meant the boys would go in their jeans- if they went in the water at all, and Sylvia and I were expected to strip down to our camisoles and slips. We did it all the time in junior high. Somehow, now that we were older, it seemed like a trick that he was asking.

"It ain't hot enough yet," Sylvia said.

Tim exhaled smoke and asked me, "What do you think, Cammy?"

"You know we ain't got anything to swim in," I said, but conceded, "it might be nice to just hang out by the river, though."

Sylvia elbowed me in the ribs. I ignored her. Unlike Sylvia, I didn't have a night off. I had to be home by six, and this was as much freedom as I was going to see all day. Plus, I was starting to believe that Tim Shepard really was giving me the once-over. He seemed to be pretty insistent on keeping a conversation going with me, and I wanted to see what his intentions were.

"Let's go swimming, then," Tim said. His buddy in the front seat- who's opinion no one had asked- just shrugged.

The river was low that year, and there was plenty of sand between it and the grass where Tim parked the car. We walked down together. Mikey had his shirt off before we reached the bank. The water was moving slow. I could see a sandbar just below the surface near the middle. We could probably wade to it.

"I ain't going in. I just ate," Sylvia said.

Tim rolled his eyes at her and said to me, "What about you?"

"I ain't taking all my clothes off."

"I ain't asking you to. Not all of 'em. Come on, I'll go first." Tim tossed his cigarette out of his mouth and pulled his t-shirt up over his head. He dropped that on the ground and grinned at me. "Now you."

I blinked and made a mental note: Tim Shepard had an appendectomy scar. At some point, Tim had been sick and someone had to take of him. It meant he was just another kid like the rest of us, probably just as afraid as I was at someone seeing me shirtless.

I kept my eyes on the scar, trying to avoid his. Over my shoulder, I could hear Mikey's feet testing the water at the edge of the bank.

"Glory, that's cold," he said.

"See, it's too cold," I heard Sylvia argue. "I ain't going in."

Brief moments like this, when I was braver than Sylvia, were all I had- or so I thought back then. I didn't have her curves or her charisma, but I wasn't going to whine about the water.

I unbuttoned my blouse from the bottom up and took it off.

"That's all," I said to Tim.

"You're going to swim in that skirt?" He was kicking off his Chuck's and working his socks off with his toes, and it occurred to me that his jeans were next.

"She ain't going to swim," Sylvia intervened, jerking my arm. "What are you doing?"

"Going swimming," I told her. I reached behind me and unzipped my skirt just to prove my point. Sylvia threw her hands up in disgust.

"I'm just going to lay out," she said. "Don't drown."

"I'll keep her afloat, Syl," Tim said. When I turned back, he was standing there in his boxers.

I let my skirt drop.

"I'm keeping this on," I said, referring to my slip.

"Be my guest," he said. He shrugged and started to walk away towards the water like he was disappointed in me. It didn't work. I kept my slip on and followed him.

Mikey had taken off his shoes, but not his jeans. The three of us stood shoulder to shoulder on the bank. I could feel Mikey looking me over. The sun felt good, but the water was cold enough to give me goose bumps.

"Holy Christ," Tim whisper when his toes touched it.

"Yeah, cold," Mikey said.

I was more uncomfortable standing there on the bank. I took a tentative step into the river. It was cold, but it felt better than being half-naked in front of Tim and Mikey and the other guy- who had declined to take off anything and was hanging back with Sylvia.

"I want to go there," I said, pointing to the sandbar.

Tim said, "I can't swim."

"Me neither," said Mikey.

"I just wanted to see if you'd take your clothes off," Tim told me. He winked over my head at Mikey.

"Well, son of a bitch," I said. "I know you got a pack of cards in that car somewhere. Why didn't you just ask if I wanted to play strip poker?"

"Seemed too obvious. I didn't think you'd go for it."

I glared at him. "I'd have gone for it because I could've whipped you at poker."

"You think so, little girl?" Tim smirked at the thought of it.

I cursed under my breath and took another step into the water.

"I'm going out there. Y'all are too chicken, you can just sit on the bank like peeper-frogs and watch me."

"Gladly," Tim said. "I will gladly sit here like a peeper-frog and watch you get all wet."

Mikey cackled.

"Oh screw you, Shepard," I said. I turned back and swung my arm into the water as I did. I brought it up again and splashed them both.

They jumped back, cursing.

"Do that again and I'm taking your clothes," Tim threatened me. "I might do that anyway. Add them to my collection…"

I knew what he meant, but I couldn't resist:

"You have a collection of women's clothes?"

He took a step further back on to the bank and picked up my skirt.

"Cammy Leigh, you may kiss my ass," he said. He balled up my skirt and threw it into the river in front of me.

"That's why I didn't go in the water," Sylvia said to me on the way home. Tim was driving us back to her house to get a dry skirt for me to wear home. I sat with my wet skirt on my lap, covering my slip so Mikey couldn't look at my thighs.

When we got to Sylvia's house, I wiggled into my skirt. As we walked away from Tim's car, I heard Mikey say, "She's cute as fuck, man."

"She's scrawny as fuck, too," Tim replied, loud enough for me to hear. "Too little meat, and too much mouth."

Sylvia flipped him off. I didn't even turn around.


	4. Chapter 4

**Four**

I had a job that summer watching kids for a woman who lived on the floor below my family. We lived in the worst of the worst buildings on the north side of Tulsa. Maybe not the worst- I guess the flop houses were the absolute bottom, but our building was bad.

Watching kids all night for Mrs. Mackner meant I got my own bedroom, sort of. I slept on her couch, which was preferable to sharing a bedroom with my fourteen-year old sister Meg. Mrs. Mackner had a TV and I could watch it after her two kids went to bed until the signal went off.

She paid me, barely. It was a guilt job. Mr. Mackner took off over the winter and left Mrs. Mackner with a three-year old and a baby. She had to take a job waiting tables at a bar on the corner of our block.

Two-Bit Mathews' mother worked there too. She was in a similar situation to Mrs. Mackner except her kids were old enough not to need a babysitter. Maybe Two-Bit did sometimes. The Harbor was just the place you went, I guess, when your old man bailed. It was run by a long-time single mother. She knew the score, and knew that at least she was lucky enough to get a bar left to her when her old man took off.

Mrs. Mackner called me one night and told me to bring the kids down for a minute because she missed them. I found out later that she'd seen Mr. Mackner with another woman.

That's when I found out it was Two-Bit's mom waiting tables with her. He was there picking up a burger when I walked in with the baby on my hip.

"That's a good look for you, Cammy," he said.

"Not for years and years," I told him.

He offered Inara- the three-year old- a stick of gum. She snapped it up before I could remind her that she'd already brushed her teeth. I figured she could brush them again.

"So what's going on?" Two-Bit asked me.

"I'm working," I said.

"You sell children door-to-door? That must be a satisfying endeavor."

"Yeah, you should see their little faces light up when they hear the salt mine's hiring. Babysitting. I stay with them while their mom works here."

"Which one's their mom?"

I nodded towards Mrs. Mackner. She was serving drinks across the room, smiling at Inara from the corner of her eye.

Two-Bit gestured towards the bar and the woman behind it.

"That's my mom."

I nodded at the resemblance.

"So, you work all night?" He asked.

"Till she closes up. Usually, I just sleep on her couch and bail out in the morning. Make 'em breakfast so she can sleep."

"That's very saintly of you."

"It doesn't always work. They go looking for her when they wake up. You still in summer school?"

"Always. Like my second home. Shepard finished up. They even gave him his diploma. No more quality time with him."

I rolled me eyes. "Yeah, I keep seeing him around town."

Two-Bit tossed up that eyebrow. "Do you now?

Before I could answer, Mrs. Mackner interceded and took Jill, the baby, from me. Two-Bit retreated to a corner with his burger while I talked to her. I was glad for it. I was figured he'd heard about the swimming incident via the grapevine, but I didn't really want to know for sure.

I avoided him by answering Mrs. Mackner's hundred questions about what the girls had been up to all evening. I'd almost forgotten his was there until it came time for us to head back to the apartnment.

"Cammy, hold up," Two-Bit called to me, scooting out of the booth. "It's dark. I'll walk you back."

I pointed out the window towards my building and said, "It's right there," but everyone woman in the bar shot me a look like I was stupid so I backed down.

"Okay," I said. "But it's right there."

It wasn't that I was embarrassed for Two-Bit to see my building. I knew what kind of neighborhood he came from. More so, I didn't want gossip to get started within the building and get back to my parents. My parents liked to think they had me on a short leash.

We left the bar and crossed the street. Back on the sidewalk, Two-Bit roared and chased a screaming Inara down to our end of the block. I followed with the baby. By the time we caught up, he had Inara on his shoulders and was waiting to open the door.

"Which floor?" He asked.

"You can't come in."

"I can't come in the building?"

"You can't come in the apartment," I relented a little.

"She's tired. I'll get you as far as their door."

Inara wrapped her armed around Two-Bit's head. She clasped her fingers together over his eyebrows.

"Third floor," I said.

"Where do you live?" He asked, following me in towards the stairwell.

"Fourth."

"Ah, the penthouse suite."

"No, that would be on the eighth, but I don't think anyone actually lives up there. Unless they've done something- which to hear my dad talk- these landlords will never do. It's one big room. Like a studio."

It sounded cool to call it a studio. Really, it was more like the attic where Mr. Rochester kept his wife locked up. Still, I remembered my younger sister and I sneaking up there when we'd first moved to the building. My parents went through a rough patch, and we used to go up there to hide from them. My sister could turn cartwheels across the floor for hours. I'd sit in one of the window wells and stare out over the city.

I hadn't thought about that in a long time. My parents had gotten over whatever was wrong between them, and Meg and I didn't have a reason to hide from them anymore.

"That's cool," Two-Bit said. His voice was more quiet. The stairs and the weight of Inara was winding him.

By the time we reached the third floor, Jill was asleep in my arms. Walking the stairs always knocked her right out. I had great muscle tone in my arms. She was only six months old, but solid like a brick.

"Here," I said to Two-Bit as we reached Mrs. Mackner's apartment. He let Inara down. I unlocked the door and she rushed inside. She came back to peep at him when I didn't immediately follow.

"So when's your night off?" Two-Bit asked me.

"Whenever hers is. Bar's closed on Sunday, and she gets one other night."

He grinned. "Well, there ain't much going on Sunday nights. When's the other night? You and me should catch a movie or something."

I was so dumb- it hadn't occurred to me that this is where it was all leading. I had to bite my lip to keep from asking out loud, "Like a date?"

Two-Bit's reputation preceded him. Even a full-blown date with him didn't necessarily mean there would be a second or that he wouldn't be out with someone else the next night. I figured as long as he wasn't expecting anything different from me, though…like I had anyone else asking me out.

"Sure," I said. "I think she's off Friday."

"Friday's good. You want me to call you?"

I looked down at the floor. Inara grinned up at me.

"We don't have a phone," I said.

Two-Bit was unfazed. "No sweat. We just make it Friday then. I'll pick you up at seven."

"You're going to have to meet my dad."

"I'll be on my best behavior."

He wiggled his eyebrows at me, which made me a little nervous. I thanked him for carrying Inara and repeated, "Friday," to him.

"Seven o'clock," he said.

I ducked back into Mrs. Mackner's apartment and closed the door. I looked at Inara wide-eyed. I wanted to run around the living room all the sudden, but I was afraid I'd wind her up.

"You got to brush your teeth again," I told her.

I put the baby down on Mrs. Mackner's bed and went to the window. Below, on the street, Two-Bit was leaving the building. He stopped at the corner to light a cigarette and then disappeared out of sight. If I'd been up on the eighth floor, I could've watched him walk forever.


	5. Chapter 5

SE Hinton= The Outsiders and Two-Bit.

**Boys of Summer**

**Five**

Telling Sylvia was a mistake. She said Two-Bit was shady. Telling my dad was worse.

"What's his name?" My dad asked me.

My dad was old; a lot of people thought he was my grandfather. He met my mom when he was driving truck and she was working in a diner. He'd had another family before us and his other wife had died. I had two brothers that I'd met twice. My dad seemed more old-fashioned than a lot of kid's dads who had been out of the country during the Second World War.

"Keith," I said. "Keith Mathews. His mom works with Mrs. Mackner."

"Who's his dad?"

I shrugged. "I don't know. Mr. Mathews?"

My dad shot me a look. He couldn't hide a slight smile.

"He got a car?"

"Yes, sir."

"Where's he going to take you?"

"To a movie."

"What movie?"

I hadn't asked. Two-Bit had said maybe we should catch a movie. I didn't know if that meant at the theater or the drive-in. My father distrusted the drive-in, and probably had a right to. A lot of stuff went down at the drive-in.

"He knows he's coming up here to meet me?"

"Yes, sir."

"Because you ain't going anywhere with any boy who can't walk three flights of stairs to meet your old man."

He said this because Jolene was always trying to meet boys at the door downstairs. She used to lie and say she was meeting her girlfriends and then take off with a carload of boys. The only boy I remembered coming to our apartment to meet my dad was Darry Curtis. Meg and I were head-over-heels for him, and I think maybe my dad was too.

"Yes, sir," I said again to my father. He asked when again, and I told him tomorrow at seven o'clock. I walked away praying that he'd have a shirt on when Two-Bit arrived and that he wouldn't be cleaning a gun at the kitchen table. Sylvia's dad liked to do that when Dallas was around.

"What are you going to wear?" My little sister was sitting on the edge of the bed we shared when I wasn't sleeping on Mrs. Mackner's couch.

I shrugged. I didn't know. I didn't have a lot of clothes. I had some things that I'd bought myself at St. Vincent DePaul that my father wouldn't let me wear to school. He said I looked like a damned beatnik, which was my intention. I wondered if he'd let me wear them on a date.

"I don't know," I told Meg.

"I like that purple blouse…with the bell sleeves. You look good in purple."

I knew what blouse she was talking about- it was one of the ones I wasn't allowed to wear to school. Still, I raised an eyebrow at her when she referred to the "bell sleeves". What kind of fourteen-year old knows about bell sleeves?

"I guess," I said. "It looks pretty foolish with all the rigmarole I'm supposed to wear under it. I don't know why I even bought it."

"Then don't wear all that. Not like dad's going to check."

"Mama might."

"If she's here," Megan reminded me. Our mother usually went to Jolene's on Friday to help her around her house. Jolene never seemed to be able to get her place together in time for her husband to come home for the weekend. Jolene could never do anything by herself.

I said to Megan, "Fine. Since you're the expert, what do I wear with it?"

She beamed and jumped up off the bed.

"You should borrow a skirt from Sylvia."

"I'm taller than Sylvia. That would be a pretty short skirt."

Megan rolled her eyes. She went to our closet and took out the blouse with the bell sleeves. She pulled out a pair of boots, but I shook my head. It would still be too hot outside at seven. She put them back and chose my Mary Janes instead. Then she went hunting for a skirt.

I let her. She seemed to be enjoying herself, and I was more caught up thinking about whether or not Two-Bit and I were really going to a movie.

My father said I looked lovely although I can't say he looked too happy about it. My sister had told me to leave my hair down, and my father- I knew- thought that was improper. Still, he didn't say a thing about the blouse or my lack of stockings. He asked me if I needed any money.

I told him no, thank you.

And then we waited. I sat down on the sofa and Meg sat next to me. She twitched with excitement.

Seven o'clock came and I began to train my ears for noises in the hall. Once I heard footsteps on the stairs, and I was sure it was him. It wasn't. Seven-thirty came and went.

The worst part was that my father said nothing the whole time. He sat at the kitchen table and read the paper. My sister kept asking, "are you sure he said seven? Maybe it was eight."

My father said nothing. I wanted to die.

How can I explain it? My father wasn't mad at me; he was mad at the guy who stood up his little girl, but still I was the one who was embarrassed. It reflected on me, I guess. I had _chosen_ the kind of guy who would stand me up, and my father was there to witness it.

By nine o'clock, I was done. I stood up, shrugged at my sister, and went to our room to get undressed. I couldn't wait until she fell asleep so that I could cry. Maybe I'd even sneak out and go up to the eighth floor.

I was kicking my shoes off and into the back of the closet when a knock came at the door. I stopped what I was doing, but didn't go any farther. I didn't want to see him now. I didn't want to have to watch what was going to happen between him and my dad.

Bless her- my stupid sister answered the door.

I couldn't hear what Two-Bit said, only my father's reply: "Did your watch stop, son?"

I heard him say, "no, sir"- at least he knew to call my father 'sir'- and then, "Is Cammy here?"

"She doesn't want to talk to you." My sister was enjoying this. She always was- still is- dramatic.

I sighed and went to the door.

"Take it easy, Megan," I said. I stood in the doorway to my bedroom.

Two-Bit said, "Can I talk to you…?" and motioned towards the hall. I looked for my father, praying for a denial, but he gestured for me to go ahead. My whole family, it seemed, was against me.

I followed Two-Bit out into the hall.

"I'm sorry I'm so late. Is there any chance…?"

"No," I said.

"Alright, shit," he said, ducking his head and running his fingers through his hair. That's when I noticed the scrapes on his knuckles and- for the first time- a small cut on his lip.

"Did you get in a fight?" I asked him.

"Kind of. That's why I was late. It wasn't nothing, really. See? I didn't get hurt too bad."

He showed me his knuckles. I pointed to his lip.

"Yeah, that one kinda caught me off-guard," he said. "And I'd love to tell you all about it…"

Suddenly, the shyness was gone and he was the same old Two-Bit- ready to tell me a tale.

"Maybe some other time," I said, shaking my head.

"Really?"

I hadn't meant it like that. I'd meant it like 'go to hell', but he took it as an invitation.

"My dad pretty much hates you, Two-Bit," I said.

"Do you?"

The truth was no, not really. I liked the look of him. If I let myself think about it, I liked that he was tall and kind of broad-chested. He wasn't wiry like Tim Shepard or Dally. He looked like he could envelope someone if he wanted to hold them close. And he smelled good- the way guys do: like Burmashave and sweat and the grass he'd just been rolled in.

I paused and he grinned.

"Not too much?" He asked. "You don't hate me too much?"

"A little. I hate you a little."

"I can work with that," he said. "Want me to come in and meet your dad?"

"No. I think he hates you a lot right now. Some other time."

"Sunday," he said. "You don't work on Sunday."

"It's Sunday. No one works."

"I'll come back on Sunday. At four."

"So, more like five-thirty?"

Two-Bit rolled his eyes.

"Four," he said. He leaned in to kiss me. I pulled my head back once and then again and made him chase me for it. He never made it.

"Are you kissing him?" My sister had her face pressed against the crack in the door.

"You want one too? You're a little young for me," Two-Bit said.

My sister screamed and ran away- thoroughly charmed.

My father- not so much.

"I knew a boy like that once, Camille," he said to me, when Two-Bit was gone and I was back inside alone with him and Meg.

"Was he you?" I asked.

I father wagged a finger at me. He was forever chastising me for my smart mouth without ever really shutting me down for it.

"Yes, of course he was me. He was me at seventeen, and me at seventeen was an ass."

I smirked. My sister cracked up.

"But you turned out alright, Daddy," Megan said.

"I'm sixty-one," my father said. "There's a hell of a long and winding road between seventeen and sixty-one. Two wives, five children. The thing that finally straightened me out was having daughters, which neither of you will be doing any time in the near future…"

Megan stuck her tongue out.

"Sons?" I asked. "No sons?"

"No sons neither," my father said.


	6. Chapter 6

SE Hinton owns Two-Bit and The Outsiders.

**Boys of Summer**

**Six**

On Sunday afternoon Sylvia was waiting for me by the corner grocery. She lived on a block of row houses with a grocery store on the corner about three blocks from my building. We met there after church for Cokes. My mother was still making Meg and me go to church with her. She could still make us go. My father and Jolene she had lost her reign over long ago.

I was still wearing my church clothes. Sylvia was shaking her head and grinning at me over her Coke bottle. Sylvia's family didn't go to church. All of her clothes were interchangeably party clothes and school clothes, something the principal at Will Rogers sometimes took issue with.

"I hate this blouse," I said before she could remark.

"You should wear it tonight."

"Yeah, scare him right off. He'll think I'm looking to walk down the aisle."

"I don't think Two-Bit Mathews thinks in those terms. It'll probably never occur to him. You should let me do your hair."

I shook my head. "Ain't even bothering with that. I put too much into it last time. I'm gun-shy now."

"He'll show," Sylvia said. She said it like she knew. She must have been party to some conversation between Two-Bit and Dally, or else Dally relayed the message.

I drank my Coke. It was getting hot again, with not a hint of rain in the sky. The clouds would look red at sundown. It would be pretty, in an apocalyptic sort of way. Sylvia lay to waste my fantasies about watching a blood-red Oklahoma sunset.

"Don't let him get up your skirt on the first date," she said.

"What about the second?" I asked, rolling my eyes at her. "What exactly is the logical progression with those sort of things?"

"You think you're a smart ass, but he's way ahead of you there, Cammy, and in a million other ways as well."

I shrugged. I didn't trust Two-Bit as blindly as she thought I did; he'd made sure of that himself by standing me up once. On the other hand, I wasn't looking to marry the guy either. I liked what my father had said on Friday night about the long and winding road. He was in his forties by the time he settled down with my mother and had lived a lifetime before her. I wanted to be like him in that way: I wanted to live a little.

* * *

I didn't put any thought towards my clothes and hair on Sunday afternoon. I was sure he'd show this time, but my stomach was tight with nerves anyway. I changed out of my church clothes and put on a plain shirt dress that I often wore to school. It was shorter than my father would have preferred, but I compromised by putting my hair up in a ponytail.

Two-Bit knocked on our door promptly at four-o'clock. He shook my father's hand and apologized for keeping us waiting on Friday. He promised to have me home by ten.

"So, eleven-thirty?" My father said.

"Eleven-thirty's good."

"No," my father said.

I led Two-Bit into the hall, keeping my back to him because I wasn't going to be able to conceal the smile on my face. I had to admit that- as long as things were still going my way- I kind of enjoyed seeing my father get the best of him.

"You look nice," Two-Bit said to me once we were safely in the stairwell.

"You've seen this dress. I wear it to school all the time."

"And you look nice in it all the time."

He winked at me. We reached the front door and he held it open. He put his arm around me crossing the street like I need protection from the traffic or something. I waited until he was in on his side of the car to ask:

"So, what was the fight about?"

"What fight?"

"The one that you stood me up for on Friday."

Two-Bit shook his head. He was grinning, but it was a strained grin. He was irritated. He leaned forward against the steering wheel and wrapped his arms over it.

"You're still mad."

I shrugged. "More curious than mad. What was so important?"

"You want to know, Cammy?" He sat back again. "It was the Socs. They've been creeping around our neighborhood…and I want you to say something if you see 'em creeping around here…they've been showing up on our turf. A couple of weeks ago they beat the living bejesus out of Johnny Cade."

That explained why I hadn't seen Johnny in summer school. Usually, he was as much a fixture there as Two-Bit and Dally.

Two-Bit continued, "I wish I could tell him that they won't come back, but I can't and that's the worst. I think that's how he can take what his dad dishes out at home, you know- because he knows what's coming. He ain't doing so good just waiting and not knowing. So, we were talking about it- me and some of the guys- and the conversation got a little heated."

"Wait- you got in a fight with your own buddies, not with the Socs?"

"I said the conversation got heated."

I rolled my eyes. I wasn't worried about the Socs showing up in my neighborhood. For one thing, it was downtown. There were stores and businesses, and the Socs had as much right to be there as anyone. For another, it was the Shepard gang's territory and the Shepard gang could be straight-up scary. The Socs wouldn't tangle with them. And as far as I was concerned, I was so far down on the social ladder, I doubted the Socs even knew I existed. They didn't really bother girls. It was the boys who tangled. They sought each other out.

Two-Bit tried to change the subject: "So what do you want to do? You want to get something to eat? Catch a movie? Go swimming?"

I rolled my eyes and he laughed out loud.

"You can go to hell, Two-Bit. What is Shepard saying? That's who you heard it from, right?"

"Oh, he's being very appropriate," Two-Bit said. "He's not saying much."

"Yeah, he's not saying much and therefore leaving it all open to interpretation."

"That's about the size of it."

I told him, "We didn't even get in the water."

"I don't have to know. That's between you and Tim."

"And the other three people who were there. Let's not forget them. It's not like I went swimming all alone with Shepard."

Two-Bit was giggling. He stretched his arm out across the back of the seat. I turned towards him and tucked my feet up under me.

"That why you asked me out- because you thought I was that kind of girl?"

He shook his head. "Nope, although I would not be averse to that kind of behavior. You helped me out in English enough times. I figured I owed you dinner. You hungry? You never answered me there."

I relaxed a little and lay my head against his arm. Two-Bit tugged on my ponytail.

"My dad…" I started.

"…scares the hell out me," he said.

"He says he was just like you once."

"Does that mean there's hope?"

"From what I've heard about my dad, it means you've got a hell of a wild ride ahead of you. I'm not really hungry."

Two-Bit nodded and asked me, "You want to go watch Stevie wreck a car?"

What Two-Bit was referring to was a stretch of dirt road north of the rodeo grounds where boys raced souped-up salvage cars and drank. It wasn't a place girls usually went. More or less, you had to be invited if you were a girl. Sylvia had never been there because Dally's interests leaned more towards rodeo than cars.

The cars, although salvaged and worthless, were the property of the salvage yard and therefore stolen. The cops had showed themselves a few times, hauled everyone in and turned them loose again. We'd heard all about it at school. Still, the drag races always started up again the next weekend.

I felt it well up in me again- the feeling that here was my chance to be cooler than Sylvia. I didn't know who I was back then if I wasn't comparing myself to her. I wanted to find out and wanting to know overshadowed any fear I should have had about getting arrested. Besides, I did kind of like cars.

"Sure," I said.


	7. Chapter 7

SE Hinton= The Outsiders.

**Boys of Summer**

**Seven**

The cloud of dust was visible for a mile before we left town. I searched the sky again for signs of rain. It wouldn't stop the race from happening, but it would keep the dust down and make it less noticable.

There were seven or eight cars, some of which I recognized from school, parked along the side of the dirt road. Tim Shepard's was among them. I waited for Two-Bit to say something, but he didn't. He drove us up to the end of the line of cars and parked behind the truck that Sodapop Curtis drove. Sodapop and Steve were sitting on the tailgate, passing a can of beer back and forth between them.

Two-Bit reached in front of me and slapped open the glove compartment.

"You want a drink?"

"Of what?"

"Little of this, little of that."

I shrugged. I let him take a drink first to see how hard it hit him. He didn't even make a face. He handed me the flask, and took a sip.

My mother was Pentecostal. She didn't allow alcohol in our house. My father drank sometimes, maybe a beer after work, but he never brought it home. That was the deal between them. I sometimes suspect that the fights they used to have were over his drinking. Whatever the deal was that they worked out between them, part of it was that there was no alcohol in the house. Because of that, I didn't have a supply to sneak from like a lot of the kids I knew. I had no source with which to build up a tolerance.

Whatever it was that Two-Bit had mixed together started out fruity and then went down like paint thinner. I pressed my lips together to gag it down and handed him back the flask.

"That'll do," I said.

Two-Bit laughed out loud at that. He took another drink, stuffed the flask in his back pocket and shoved hard against the door to open it. He turned back before jumping out, though, and took ahold of my arm. I turned towards him- I had been fumbling with my door's handle- and he leaned in and kissed me. It was spontaneous like a twitch, done in a fit of excitement that had nothing to do with me at all. I would've stayed right there and kissed him all night, but he pulled away again and bounced out the door.

I got my door open and was out before he could make it around to my side. The ditch sloped down into tall grass on my side of the car. Two-Bit reached out to take my hand and helped me up the hill.

I was still stuck on the kiss. Done in front of his friends like that, it felt like it was more for their benefit than mine. Here I was with him- one of only a few girls in a group of guys, doing what guys think they're good at: breaking shit and drinking. I liked the kiss but it irritated me the way his being late because of a fight irritated me. I felt like I was being teased first and then and relegated to second place.

I recognized Steve Randle's girlfriend, Evie, leaning back against the side of the truck. She had a can of beer in her hand. I'd never had a beer to myself in my life. After what I'd drank in Two-Bit's car, I didn't figure I needed one.

Two-Bit's grip on my hand loosened as he stopped to talk to Sodapop and Steve. So much for spending time getting to know each other. I let go of his hand and walked over to where Evie was standing.

"Welcome," she said, rolling her eyes and raising her beer can to me. "Welcome to whatever it is we do while they do what they do."

I grinned at her.

"I like cars alright," I said.

"You'll learn. Cars are your enemy," she said, and cast a glare in Steve's direction. She handed me her beer and I took a sip. I didn't really think about it. It was an automatic reaction, almost out of politeness. It was better than whatever was in Two-Bit's flask anyway.

The bed of the truck bobbed behind us as Sodapop and Steve jumped off the tailgate in unison. With Two-Bit on their heels, they rushed past us. Two-Bit squeezed my arm and said, "I'll be right back". Steve gave Evie a kiss much like the one Two-Bit had just given me. Evie pushed him off and Steve trotted away laughing.

"And now we wait," Evie said. She rolled her eyes and stared out across the hayfield across the road.

I pushed myself up off the car, and said, "I want to have a look."

She yanked me back when I started after Two-Bit.

"Oh no you don't. There's nothing they hate worse than a clingy girl."

"I ain't clinging. He's the one who brought me here. I just want to see what they're driving."

I walked away from her without further argument. Two-Bit was standing with Sodapop, leaning under the hood of some kind of Plymouth. It was a huge, ancient car- not unlike the one Two-Bit drove, which had trouble gaining speed at a stop light.

Steve Randle was there, too, leaned in even farther than Two-Bit and Soda. Steve was in danger of falling into the engine never to be seen again, which he may have enjoyed. I reached them just as Tim Shepard came around from the back of the car. He was tossing the key up and down in his left hand. I guessed he was driver.

I smiled at him and then peeked around to look at the competition.

I didn't know the boys gathered around the other car, but I knew a GTO when I saw one. It was in rough shape as well, but it was still a GTO. I guessed they'd hauled both of them out of the salvage lot together and then drawn straws for who got to race what. Tim had drawn low. I shook my head at him. He didn't speak to me.

"You didn't take your girlfriend swimming, Mathews?" Tim asked.

"Shut your trap, Shepard," Two-Bit said.

Tim's mouth curled up in a sardonic little smirk that told me he was delighted with Two-Bit's reaction. I scanned Tim's face for signs of a recent fight. I had to wonder if it was him Two-Bit had tangled with over the Socs and Johnny Cade. He seemed to be intent on reminding Two-Bit who was boss, at least on the Shepard side of town.

"You going to drive this car, Tim?" I asked. "That GTO is going to knock the shit out it. Big old V8 like that. I'll be surprised if this piece of shit doesn't rattle apart in the aftershock."

Silence. Queue tumbleweed.

They all turned and looked at me except Steve Randle, who remained bent over the engine. His shoulders were shaking from trying not to laugh. I hoped to hell I hadn't made a mistake- that the GTO really did have a V-8 engine.

"Well, my condolenscences, Mathews," Tim said. He looked my right in the eye and continued, "I dare say you won't be getting any tonight. She must be some kind of dyke to possess a knowledge of cars like that."

Two-Bit lurched towards Tim. Sodapop caught him, and Tim took a step back laughing.

I said, "No man with a good car needs to justify himself, remember, Shepard? You'd better start justifying."

Two-Bit straightened up and quit pushing against Soda.

"You want me to kick his ass?" He asked.

I shook my head. "No. I'm going to enjoy watching it get run over a whole lot more."

I winked at Two-Bit, turned and walked back towards Evie and her beer.

"Are you banned?" She asked.

"I didn't wait around to find out. My guess is 'yes'."

She smiled and handed me the can again. I took a drink, feeling cocky, and leaned back against the door of Steve's car again.

They pushed the cars to their make-shift starting line. I had thought Evie's presence there might have been because she got to be the girl who dropped the scarf, like Natalie Wood in "Rebel Without a Cause", but it wasn't. Sodapop Curtis stepped out between the cars, waited for the engines to fire, and then lit an M-80. He dropped it in the road and then jumped back. The pop echoed across the hay field and then was lost in the sound of the engines racing. The cars themselves were nearly lost in the dust. Whoever won and lost, it would have to be on the honor system: none of us left behind were going to be able to see them.

They raced for a quarter-mile down to an intersection at a stop sign. Neither car would be able to stop at there. They'd hit the brakes at the sign and slide on through. If they had functioning brakes.

We all gathered, me and Evie included, at the center of the road to wait for the dust to clear.

"I'll be damned," Two-Bit said. "I think Shepard's way out in front."

"Yeah, no shit," Steve said. He winked at me, pleased that I had doubted his mechanical skills and been proved wrong.

We couldn't see what happened next because of the dust. We just heard the squealing of brakes.

"Oh my God," Evie whispered. "They ain't to the sign yet. Did one of 'em spin out?"

"Didn't hear them hit each other," Sodapop said.

We all started jogging towards the dust cloud where the cars had disappeared. That was a mistake. As the dust began to settle we caught the first glimpses of the red flashing lights. Tim and the other driver had been cut off at the intersection by the Tulsa County Sheriff. They were lucky they hadn't hit him. In a panic, we all turned and looked behind us, but there was one blocking us in from that direction too.

Two-Bit fished out my hand and squeezed it.

"You should've taken me up on my offer to get dinner," he told me.


	8. Chapter 8

SE Hinton owns The Outsiders.

**The Boys of Summer**

**Eight**

I sat packed in the backseat of the sheriff's cruiser between Two-Bit and Evie. Sodapop and Steve sat on either side of them. None of us said a word. Evie smacked on her gum and stared straight ahead. Steve tried in vain to weave his fingers into hers once, but she jerked her hand away. Two-Bit didn't even try with me.

As the City limits came into sight on the horizon, Sodapop sighed and asked, "None of us was driving. What are you charging us with?"

"Well, let's see…who all's been drinking?"

Silence.

The deputy said, "That's what I thought. If you want, I'll gladly pursue disturbing the peace, grand theft, accessories to theft and all that. Or, I can just dole 'underages' out to all of you."

Two-Bit shrugged, like that was perfectly fine with him. The deputy must have seen him in the mirror.

"Except you, Mathews. You're eighteen, aren't you? You get disturbing the peace, then, and contributing."

I opened my mouth and shut it again. It was Evie who had given me the beer, not Two-Bit. The officer would have no way of knowing that I'd had a drink with him earlier. I was still in shock, though, over being charged myself. My mother would probably prefer I come home a felon than be caught drinking.

The officer went on, "I'll take you all downtown, book you, and you can call your parents. Except for Mathews and Shepard, it'll be time served and the fine."

I thought I saw hope glimmering before me. I had some money saved up. I could pay a fine. I could get out of this without my parents ever knowing.

It wasn't hope, though- it was the first city lights of Tulsa. Sodapop killed all that when he asked:

"So, do we have to appear?"

"Yeah," the deputy said. He stretched like he was enjoying this. "Court's backed up. You can pay up, but the court's backed up so you won't be able to appear for a couple of weeks. We'll send a notice to your parents."

My stomach turned hard. Even if I paid my fine with my own money, I wasn't going to get out of this alive. I sank back in the seat and lay my head back to look up at the darkening sky.

Two-Bit nudged my knee with his.

"It ain't no big deal, Cammy," he said. "Everyone's got a couple of underages."

"I don't," Evie said.

I didn't even look at Two-Bit. He didn't understand. He didn't know what my mother was like. He didn't know about the fights between her and my father, the blow-outs between her and Jolene, and what a gigantic deal this was going to be for her. I was going to be like a third strike for her, a sign of her failure as a woman of faith.

Shit. There was no way I was getting out of this one alive.

Even still, I tried to prolong it. When the officer in the station held out the receiver to me, I told him:

"We don't have a phone at home. I need to call my sister."

I took the receiver and asked the operator for Dale Hamill's line. Then I waited for either my brother-in-law or my sister to pick up. It was possible that Dale was there. More likely, though, Jolene would answer the phone.

It rang five times, and I was ready to hang up when she answered.

"Jo, this is Cammy. Can you come and get me?"

"What's wrong?"

"Nothing's wrong. Well, I mean, I'm in jail, but I'm okay."

My sister laughed on the other end of the line.

"Well, that's a relief. What're you in jail for?"

"Underage. I got picked up at a drag race. I was there with a boy…can you just…?"

"Give me a damned minute. I think there's gas in the car…If there isn't, you owe me gas money. You owe gas money either way…"

"Jo, there are other people waiting to call," I lied.

"Whatever," she said. "I'm coming."

She hung up and I handed the receiver back to the officer.

"One of them will be down," I told him.

Since I couldn't promise them exactly when, they took me back to holding with Evie.

The Tulsa County Holding tank was about as close to Hell as I could imagine at that point in my life. It was that hot. The windows were narrow openings in the cinder block- too narrow for a body or much air to get through. The walls were grey and slick. They appeared to be sweating. The whole place smelled like bodies.

They took me back to wait for my sister. They put me a in cell with Evie. The women's and men's cellblocks were separated by a wall, but the wall didn't go all the way up to the ceiling. The men and women prisoners constantly shouted back and forth to one another and sometimes passed notes by tossing them back and forth over the wall. I wondered if the men's side was any cooler. If I'd wanted to know that bad, I could've asked.

Evie slid over on the thin bench and I sat down next to her.

"My dad's gonna tan me," she said.

"My sister's coming after me." I was hopeful that Jolene would help me concoct some kind of plan that would make tolerating her mockery worth my while. When she was my age, Jolene was good with plans.

"Lucky," Evie said. "I'm never going to see the outside of my room again. You hear that, Steve Randle?"

She shouted the last part, and added, "Never again!"

From farther away on the other side, I heard Tim Shepard's voice, "You hear that, Steve Randle?"

Steve cursed him.

I waited in silence for Two-Bit to say something to me. I wasn't going to be the first to speak, but I still wanted to hear him say he was sorry even though it really wasn't his fault.

The longer I waited, the worse it got. Two-Bit said nothing, and that made it worse. Evie and Steve started fighting with one another over the wall. Tim kept making fun of them, and then Steve started shouting at Tim. That, at least, seemed to make Evie happy.

About forty-five minutes later, the deputy came back. Someone had bailed Tim. He released Tim first, and then Tim followed him over to our side and the deputy opened the cell.

"Camille Davenport?" He said. "Your sister's here."

"Come on, Evie," Tim said. "Show me some skin. I've been locked up and without a woman…"

"Shepard, can it," the deputy told him.

When his back was turned, Evie flipped Tim off. He winked at her. I stood up and followed the deputy and Tim out into the booking room. Tim headed for the door, trailing his arm across my shoulders as he went. He gave the back of my neck a squeeze and was gone. I couldn't tell if the gesture was sympathetic or sexual and I didn't care.

* * *

My sister Jolene was trying not to grin and failing at it. She signed me out and handed me a receipt lest I forget how much I owed her for bail. I took my purse back from the deputy and followed my sister out to her car.

As soon as we were inside, she started talking.

"I called that neighbor lady, and sent a message to Ma," Jolene said. "I told her you got in a fight with your little boyfriend and you came over to my place. You can spend the night."

I frowned at Jolene. I didn't get how that story was much better than the truth. It would still get me in trouble.

"I'm going to have to appear in court," I told her. "They'll send a summons to Daddy."

"So, keep checking the mail," Jolene said.

"I don't want to keep lying about it."

"Why the hell not?" Jolene had a bitterness about her that I'd never understood. When she lived with us she misbehaved like she was entitled to do it somehow.

"It'll just get worse," I said. "Eventually it'll catch up with me."

She shook her head. "It just gets worse for a little while. Then you move out."

"That's one hell of a long time off."

"No, it ain't," Jolene said. "It just feels that way 'cause you're sixteen."

* * *

My mother was home when I walked in to the apartment the next morning with Jolene. She was in the kitchen washing dishes. She dropped her dish rag, picked up a towel, and hurried over to me in one fluid motion.

"Are you alright, baby? What'd he do to you?"

I glared at Jolene. I already felt bad enough.

"Nothing, Ma," I said. "We just got in an argument. I got mad and walked away. I just walked to Jo's."

"Your father is going to have to have a talk with him. What kind of boy just lets you walk away after dark like that?"

"I didn't give him much of a choice," I said.

"Well, his mother just works down there," she said. She called the bar 'down there' like it was a dirty word. "Doesn't she? She works with Brenda Mackner? I'll just go down and have a word…"

As bizarre and intriguing the image was of my mother in a bar, I shook my head.

"No, Mama, she doesn't know anything about it. She's got enough on her plate, don't you think? Besides, it was just a dumb argument. I just got worked-up over nothing. I shouldn't have walked off like that. It wasn't his fault."

For the first time, my mother looked dubious. Her eyes moved off of me and on to Jolene.

"What time was all this, Jo? When did she show up at your place?"

Jolene was sitting on the sofa, leafing through the paper. She stopped for a moment, like she was thinking about something else, then she said:

"I don't know. What was it, Cam, about nine?"

"About that. It's wasn't too dark yet."

My mother sighed and began walking back towards her dishes.

"Well, that's the end of it between you and this boy, I can tell you that, Camille. I don't want you seeing him anymore. Your father said he showed up two hours late the first time, and he goes and does this. If he comes up here looking for you, I want you to send him away. Or have your father do it."

I nodded. I doubted Two-Bit was going to coming looking for me, even after he got out of jail. He hadn't even spoken to me once we got there, hadn't tried to send any messages to me over the cell wall. He had his own problems, and I was the source of his contributing charge.

Still, I said to my mother, "He ain't a bad guy, Mama. He's just a little rough around the edges is all."

"Camille, you sound like a bad country and western song. You sound like your sister at your age."

From the corner of my eye, I could see Jolene smiling. She was enjoying this. I didn't remember her enjoying it this much when she was my age and in my predicament.


	9. Chapter 9

SE Hinton= Outsiders and Two-Bit.

**Boys of Summer**

**Nine**

Jolene was right and I was wrong. I was a million miles from done. I was also wrong about Two-Bit.

I was the first person he came looking for when he got out of the cooler a week later. He came knocking on the door of Mrs. Mackner's apartment that night after Inara and Kim were asleep.

"You can't be here," I hissed at him.

He grinned. "Straight here from the slammer, and that's what I get? How about 'hi, Two-Bit'? Turn it around and try again."

"Hi, Two-Bit…you can't be here."

"Then come out here."

"I can't. They're asleep."

"I know. That's why I waited until now. Come on."

I don't know why I did it: fear of the gossip if we got caught in the hall, I guess. I took a step back and opened the door for him.

"You get your court date yet?" He asked.

I shook my head. "I've been looking, but it hasn't come. Jo paid the fine and I paid her back."

"You'll be alright," he said.

"Two-Bit, my parents…my mom is…"

"Some serious Bible Beater, I know. Sylvia told me. Said you go to that church where they speak in tongues and stuff. Do you do the thing with snakes? That'd be cool."

I shook my head. "No snakes."

I didn't deny the Words of Knowledge, though. I'd seen people do it during services- just get up and start speaking in tongues. Sometimes you could understand them and sometimes it was gibberish, although the preacher said it was a sacred language. Whatever it was, it scared me to death. I always wanted to run for the door when they started up.

"Too bad," Two-Bit said. "Cammy, I'm sorry I got you in to this."

I nodded.

"You still want to go out sometime?"

"My mom said never again with you."

"I think I might've won your daddy over. Maybe he could pull some strings."

I couldn't help but smile at that. As irritated as my father had acted by him, I had a feeling that deep-down he did like Two-Bit.

Still, I told him, "I don't think so."

"They don't want to do that," he said. "They got to know better. Sneaking around is too much fun. Besides, I still owe you dinner. I'd hate to be walking around with an open debt like that."

"You don't owe me anything, Two-Bit."

He rolled his eyes and stepped closer. I thought he was going to maybe take hold of my hand but he dipped and picked me up around the waist instead. I squeaked and then looked- terrified- in the direction of the room where the girls were sleeping. Two-Bit held me up in the air, looking down at him.

He poked up that eyebrow.

"You'd better just say it then, Cammy. If you want me to bug off, I want to hear you say it. None of this 'my mama said, my daddy said'."

I kicked my feet a little and squirmed, but I was smiling. He loosened his grip at let me drop until I was almost at eye level with him. He leaned in to kiss me, and this time I didn't try to duck away. I wrapped my arms around his neck and he let me slip back to the floor.

Against my better judgement and my mother's orders, I made out with Two-Bit on Mrs. Mackner's couch till the early hours of the morning- until we were both caught between falling asleep or taking each other's clothes off.

"You got to go," I told him when the clock struck two. "I can't tell when she'll be back. If she don't have to clean up, she'll be back right away."

Two-Bit tugged my blouse back into place over my stomach.

"Want me to come back tomorrow? Are you working?"

I shook my head. It was mine and Mrs. Mackner's night off, not that I was going to be going out anywhere.

"What about your penthouse suite?" He asked, referring to the abandoned eighth floor. Two-Bit was way better at thinking of ways to be sneaky than I was.

"They'll send my sister with me."

Two-Bit rolled his eyes.

"What about Sylvia? Say you're going out with Sylvia, and then Dal and me'll meet up with you. Are you still allowed to go out with girls?"

I made a face.

"Have you ever been out with Dal and Sylvia together?"

Two-Bit grinned. He kissed me again and pinched my tummy.

"It's got to be better than staying cooped up here. We don't have to stay with them. Christ, I got no intention of doing that. Just tell your mama that you're with Sylvia."

I didn't have an argument for that. I stroked one of his sideburns with my thumb. There didn't seem to be a way out of it, not that I was looking too hard for one.

* * *

Maybe the reason that Two-Bit had attempted to take me to the drag race on our first date was because- if you went out with Two-Bit to a place where there were girls, you had to deal with all the other girls he'd ever dated.

There were many. If they weren't already looking at me mean and giving themselves away, Sylvia was happy to point them out.

They all looked different from me: older, harder, filled-out. They wore heels and I wore mary janes. Their sweaters could barely contain them.

"Shit," I said as Sylvia finished telling me how Two-Bit and Mary Jean Benton had gotten caught in the second floor restroom of Will Rogers their sophomore year. I don't know how I hadn't heard about it. I must have had my nose in a book.

"Yeah, 'shit' is right," Sylvia said. "Her brother about finished what Mr. Haggarty didn't. You remember Mary Jean's brother?"

I did not. I'd blocked him out, too, it seemed.

We were walking behind Two-Bit and Dally across the parking lot of The Pines restaurant. We'd taken Two-Bit's car from Sylvia's where he and Dally had picked us up. My mother said could stay the night at Sylvia's as long as we weren't going out anywhere. Without a phone, though, she had no way of calling and relaying her wishes to Sylvia's mother.

We caught up to them when they stopped to talk to a crowd of bikers gathered around the front door. Two-Bit put his arm around me, but that didn't stop them from looking me up and down. I inched in closer and lay my head against his chest.

They talked about nothing and I let my eyes drift inside the restaurant. This time, I was hungry.

My gaze wandered over the tables, looking for an empty one. Where it landed, though, made me blink. I recognized my father even through the smoke. He had a plate and a beer in front of him, and- across the table- a woman I didn't know. I pushed away from Two-Bit.

"Can you hold on a second?" I said to him. "I need to go inside. There's someone there I know."

He gave me a funny look, but took his arm away. I must have had a strange look on my face because he didn't ask me any questions.

My father saw me coming and sat back in his chair. He pushed the beer away like I wouldn't notice it that way.

"Thought you were at your friend's house, Camille," was the first thing he said to me.

I didn't answer him. I looked at the woman. She didn't say a word. She was older than my mother, but still pretty. She must've been a looker in 1945. Her hair was blonde and graying; she didn't try to dye it. She had large blue eyes. I looked at her hand for a ring. She wasn't wearing one.

"Camille," my father said. "This is Judy."

The woman offered me her hand. I recognized the name. I'd known who she was before he said it.

I shook her hand, but said to my father, "I thought she was dead."

"You tell them I'm dead?" Judy said. She was my father's first wife, the one he had his sons with, the one who had died before he met my mother.

"No one told you that," my father said. "We just told you she was gone."

"That doesn't sound much better, Ronnie," Judy said. She didn't seem upset, more like she was teasing him.

My father said to her, "I never told them you were dead. I don't know what Marie tells them."

"What exactly haven't you been telling me?" I asked.

"Would you like to sit down, honey?" I bristled when she called me 'honey'. She reached behind me and pulled a chair from another table. "Maybe I should just talk to her, Ron. Give us a minute."

My father nodded. He stood up and patted my shoulder as he walked away. It was too late when I realized he was walking out the door and straight in to Two-Bit. I didn't really care. I just wanted to go running out that door myself.

"Well, I'm not dead," Judy said to me. "We've established that. There isn't anything going on here more than dinner, if that's what you're wondering. Your father and I split up when your mother got pregnant, but he's always remained in touch because of the boys. We've always been friends. We've known each other since we were kids. I hated him for a long time, but…you know…it's hard to hate your dad."

I wasn't so sure about that. The images spinning in my mind were of Two-Bit's mom and Mrs. Mackner- the women whose husbands had ditched them and their kids. My father, it turned out, was one of those guys. He'd knocked up my mother and then left his wife and two little boys for her.

"I do okay on my own," Judy said. "Your mother…with her beliefs…it just made more sense for him to be with her."

"So, you're divorced?" I managed to choke something out.

"Oh no, we were never married." She laughed a little. "I have a very different belief system than your mother. We're sort of ends of a spectrum."

The restaurant door opened and shut. I became aware of voices outside. I looked around and I could see my father talking to Two-Bit. Dally and Sylvia were there, but it was Two-Bit my father was talking to.

I stood up. Judy started to tell me to stay and have something to eat, but I just walked away. I went to the door, opened it, and kept walking right past my father and Two-Bit.

"Whoa, hold on now," my father said. "Camille, come back here."

I wheeled around. I spoke past him to Two-Bit, "Can we go? Can you just take me somewhere else? I don't want to talk to him."

"The hell you will, Camille," My father said. "I'm still your father, and you're still in a world of hurt with me and your mother…"

"What about you? Are you in a world of hurt with my mother? Does she know about this?"

My father sputtered. He threw his hands up and then turned around to Two-Bit. "Can you take her home, son? Can I trust you to take her home?"

Two-Bit nodded. He stepped around my father and took my by the arm.

"What about us?" Dally called to him.

"You'll figure it out," Two-Bit said.

He pulled me back to his car and opened the door for me. I paused for one more look at my father before I got in. He was running his fingers through his gray hair. He looked old, which is he was- too old to be juggling so many women and children. He and I locked eyes for a second, and I couldn't understand how he could look so hurt like he did. I got in the car and slammed the door.

Two-Bit got in and turned the key in the ignition.

"I ain't going home," I said.

"The hell," he replied. "I think I'm actually inclined to do what he says."

"What for? He's a lying son of a bitch. He's been lying to me since…" I tried to think if my father ever really had told me his former wife- or whatever she was- was dead. Maybe just my mother had said it. I tried to remember if Jolene had. "Can you take me to my sister's?"

"He said to take you home, Cammy."

"Why do you care what he says? You didn't care last night."

Two-Bit sighed. "Where's your sister live?"

I told him and he turned out of the parking lot. If my father was still standing there, he saw that we turned in the opposite direction from our apartment. We drove in silence for a while, and then I asked Two-Bit:

"What'd he tell you?"

"He said what Camille's seeing is not what she thinks. He said I was a man, and I had to help you understand that."

"What the hell's that supposed to mean?"

"I don't know," Two-Bit said. He smiled. "I guess I ain't as much of a man as he gives me credit for."

"He was in there with his ex-wife…except she says they weren't ever married, so the mother of his other pack of kids. She said there was nothing else going on…"

"So maybe there ain't."

"Then why's he acting so guilty? Why doesn't my mom know? If he knows my mom'd hit the roof but he does it anyway, doesn't that make it wrong?"

Two-Bit tapped his fingers on the steering wheel.

"Can't they just be friends?" He asked. "Maybe they're friends, and that's it."

I sighed. I thought about all of Two-Bit's other girls, all the other blondes, and I didn't figure I could make him understand. We were close to the railroad worker's apartments. I put my hand on the door handle.

"Can you just let me out? I think I'll walk."

He shook his head. "No. I told him I'd take you home. I'm not doing that- by your request- but I ain't leaving you in the street either."

"I can see her place from here, Two-Bit. I'm okay. Just let me out."

He had to stop at a light just then anyway. Before he could answer, I had the door open and was out.

"Cammy!" He shouted at me.

I closed the car door. I gestured towards my sister's place- indicating that I was going there. He waited for me to cross the street and then sat there while I walked another half-block in the right direction. When I figured I was far enough out of sight, I sat down in the doorway of an empty store and cried.


	10. Chapter 10

SE Hinton owns them.

**Boys of Summer**

**Ten**

"Christ, again?"

I recognized the voice above me. I looked up and there was my brother-in-law Dale.

"'Again' what?" I asked.

"Jo said she had to take you to your parents the other night 'cause you got in a fight with your honey. Did you get in another fight? You're a feisty one, Cammy Leigh."

I wiped my eyes.

Dale always called me 'Cammy Leigh' same as Tim Shepard did. Dale was about as slippery to deal with, a greaser through and through, but he wasn't nearly the pain in the ass that Jolene acted like he was.

"You crying?" He asked and then, grinning, "Want me to lay him out?"

He threw a couple of blind punches in the air. I shook my head.

"Did you know my dad still sees his first wife?"

"The dead one?" He asked. He shifted back and forth, took out a cigarette, and then sat down next to me on the step. "Yeah, I did know that."

"So Jolene knows."

He nodded and lit his cigarette. He spoke to me with his lips half-closed around it. "Yeah, they figured they'd tell you when they figured it was time, then Meggie when it was time. They're not very good at this- Jo found out on her own, too."

Since he was so full of knowledge, I hustled up the nerve to ask, "Is he sleeping with her still?"

Dale jerked his head back, like my language shocked him. "How should I know? Hell, I don't know. Here, girl, have a smoke."

I took his cigarette from him. I held it between my fingers, baubled it around, but didn't inhale. After a bit, he took it back.

"Listen, Cammy Leigh, when Jo found out, your parents had a big blow-up. I think he told her then that he wouldn't see the other one anymore."

"I thought it was over him drinking."

Dale thought that was funny. "Shit, your old man don't hardly drink. Like a beer or two every now and then…"

"…when he sees her. I get it."

He shrugged. "Maybe. It could all be perfectly innocent, you know. I mean, I don't know, but I never did understand why a man and a woman couldn't just be friends."

"How would you feel if Jo was hanging with some guy and not telling you?"

"I'd lose my shit, but- like I'm saying- I don't know why. It's just the way it is, but I can't make any sense out of it."

I took the cigarette back from him, and this time I took a drag. I didn't inhale all the way- just blew smoke out my nose. Dale chuckled.

I mused, "Well, I guess I ain't getting busted for being out with Two-Bit then, if I caught my dad with another woman."

"What about me? I'll bust you," Dale said. "I'm old enough. I'm married to your sister. That about makes me a parent, don't it?"

"Not by a long shot."

"Tell me about this boy then. Tell me he's nice, and he treats you right, and he keeps his filthy hands off of you, and I'll let it go."

"All of those things. He's a perfect gentleman."

Dale made a noise in his throat. "I doubt it. He's an idiot- anyway- if he let you out and believed you were walking straight to my place. He don't know you very well, if that's what he thought."

"Then maybe he needs to know me better." I winked at Dale.

"Christ, no," Dale said. He stubbed out his cigarette, stood up, and offered me his hand. He pulled me up and then gave me a push in the direction of his and Jolene's place.

My sister didn't even seem surprised when I walked into her house ahead of her husband. She mumbled something about 'look what the cat dragged in'. I sat down at her kitchen table and looked at her like I meant business. Dale hustled himself up a beer and retreated to the safety of the next room.

"What?" My sister said to me.

"I met Dad's other wife. Kind of blew my evening all to hell."

Jolene rolled her eyes.

"I told them they needed to tell you. You're out and about now. Dad's a lot of things, but he's not sneaky."

"So this is what I get for coming up in this family?"

Jolene shrugged. "It ain't so bad. You figure them out, and the choices they made, and then you make your own. Go in your own direction."

"Yeah, I see where that took you," I said, grinning.

"Heard that," Dale called from the next room.

"He ain't so bad," Jolene said, loud enough for Dale to hear. "I almost miss him after he's gone a week working. That's the key to a successful relationship, I think: long periods of separation."

"Apparently, that's the key with Daddy and his ex."

Jolene grinned and wagged a finger at me.

"At least him and Mama might have meant to have you," she said. "Think about how I feel- I'm the mistake that got them all into this mess."

"What I'm curious about is how mom- being famous all over town for being such an upright Christian Soldier- got into the mess. I mean…"

From the corner of my eye, I saw Dale open his mouth. I shot him a look and continued:

"I know _how_ it happened. I just can't see her letting it get that far without being married to him, and while he was with someone else."

"I always got the feeling he conveniently forgot to mention the other one."

We both knew her name was Judy, but Jolene and I had already slipped into the habit of calling her "The Other One".

I shook my head, still not quite believing it.

"Was Dad really that smooth? Was Mama that dumb?"

Jolene laughed aloud at that. "Come on, Cammy, you've been there by now, haven't you? Or close to it? Who's this guy you been seeing? Tell me he's never laid a hand on you."

"She promised me he hadn't," Dale called out.

"Whatever," Jolene said. "You can see how it could happen, can't you- how it could go too far."

"So, you're my cautionary tale? Let it go too far, and I end up with a little Jolene of my own?" I shot her a grin.

"Thank you," she said and shoved a plate of hashbrowns at me. "Eat something. I want you to have your strength back when I smack the hell out of you later."

Jolene didn't smack me around, but she told me- at ten o'clock- that she was going to have to drive me home. That was almost as bad. I didn't want to go, and I didn't want to talk over in the car all the new rules I was going to have to live by.

"Don't tell her, Cam," Jolene told me. She was almost begging. "You remember what they were like, when they were fighting. He promised her. And don't tell Meg, either."

"I'm telling Meg before she finds out on her own."

"No, you ain't. Maybe this will be the one that will finally kick him in the head. Maybe now he'll knock it off and quit seeing her. Meg will never have to know."

"That's bullshit, Jolene, and you know it."

We rode in silence after that. When we got to our block, she started looking for a parking place. I told her to just let me out.

"I ain't as dumb as your boyfriend, Cammy," Jolene said. She found a spot, parallel parked the car like she was born doing it, and delivered me to our apartment door.


	11. Chapter 11

SE Hinton owns The Outsiders.

**The Boys of Summer**

**Eleven**

I got up the next morning before anyone else and made coffee. It was a habit from coming home at dawn from Mrs. Mackner's. I didn't drink it very often. Most days, I made it for my parents and then went back to bed.

Just as it was beginning to perk, my father came out of their bedroom. He went to the front door and got the paper out of the hall.

"'Morning, my girl," he said.

I didn't say a word to him. I got up from the table and went back to my room.

My sister Megan slept like the dead. I sat on the edge of my bed and watched her for what seemed like hours while I waited for my father to go away. He worked odd hours and on contract. Some days, he was leaving just as I was coming in from downstairs. Not today- he was dawdling and reading the paper and drinking the coffee I'd made for him like a fool.

Megan snored softly. I thought about what Jolene had said and figured she was right- that I shouldn't tell Meg. She'd hate my father, and- while I wanted everyone to hate him right then- I didn't like the idea of making her sad just because I felt that way. There had to be a better way and a better time for her to find out.

That, I figured, was how my parents ended up never getting around to telling us. Still, I wasn't ready for the responsibility to fall to me.

I got up from the bed and got dressed. I crept into the bathroom to brush my teeth. When I'd finished with that and my hair, I snuck back to the bedroom for my book bag. I left Meg alone and headed out into the living room towards the door.

"Where you going?" My father asked.

"Summer school," I said. I had so many lies in play at that point, I'm surprised I could remember them all.

"It's seven-thirty in the morning."

"I'll walk real slow," I told him and walked out.

My father was smart, I had to give him that. He knew I wasn't going to shout at him in the hall and wake up all the neighbors, so he followed me.

"Camille," he hissed. "Stop it. Stop right there."

I stopped and turned to face him.

"That boyfriend of yours don't listen too good."

"He listens to me. I asked him to take me to Jo's. You ought to be happy he didn't bring me here, straight to Mama. Last night, I would've run my mouth."

He gestured back in the direction of our apartment. "Go ahead. Run it. Tell her whatever you want- everything you think you saw. Like I told that boyfriend of yours, it ain't like you think."

I shrugged. The truth was I didn't know what I thought, except that he'd abandoned his other children for us.

"So, you didn't leave your sons-the ones you have with her?"

"No, I still see them. Camille…" He paused and looked up and down the hall. "Can we go get some breakfast? I got to be to a site at eight-thirty. Why don't you drive me and bring the car back? I'll catch a ride home tonight."

My father never, ever offered to let me drive. Women driving cars was another one of those funny, old-fashioned hang-ups he had. He was like a sailor superstitious of women aboard ships.

"Whatever. You trust me to bring it straight home?"

"I can count. I can read an odometer."

I sighed and followed him. His smart reply tugged at my soul- he and I were so much alike. I got my mouth from him- that was for sure. I looked like him- fair and slightly built whereas my sister's both had our mother's hips and dark hair. I wondered how much more of him I had inherited.

It was still cool outside. Dew clung to the spare blades of grass that poked up here and there between cracks in the sidewalk. The shadows were still heavy as the sun had yet to come up over the tall buildings.

We got in the car and my father drove us to a diner near where he needed to be picked up to go to work. He handed me the keys as we walked across the parking lot. He did things like this sometimes- sooner than he needed to or at funny times- like he was afraid he'd forget if he didn't. It reminded me that he was old, and it made me afraid.

I followed him into the diner and we found a booth. He ordered tea because he'd already had coffee. I asked for a glass of water.

"What do you want to know?" He asked me.

I shook my head. "Whatever's different than the version I already have."

"You want me to start at the beginning? 'I was born in the house that my father built' and all that? You know that story, Camille."

What I knew was that my father was born in 1905, before Oklahoma was a state. He was older than Oklahoma, he liked to remind us. He was born in Oklahoma Indian Territory. His parents were dead long before I was born. He'd worked on oil rigs and in ship yards on the Texas Gulf Coast. He'd never been in the military- he was too young for World War I and too old for World War II.

"She said you weren't married," I said because that was the thing that stuck out in my mind.

"No, she and I…we were just kids. We didn't have nobody looking out for us so we sort of just took up together. It was right after the Crash. I didn't have nobody. I was just out wandering around. You can't imagine what it was like here then. There was nothing but dust. Everyone was leaving. She and I just left together. If we never got married, it was because there was no one to marry us."

"Ever? You just never got around to it?"

He grinned a little and sipped he coffee. Then he said, "Sort of. Maybe it was the way we had to live- those things just weren't as important. It seemed like anything could fall apart back then, so why bother? Paper didn't matter anymore."

"Why did you leave her?"

He sighed and sipped his coffee again.

"Camille, no matter how angry you are and what you think that entitles you to, some of this will never be any of your business. It happened a long time ago. Judy's over it. I'm over it. Your mother is, more or less. If there's anything I regret it's that I've made your mother live in a way that she isn't at peace with, but it was the only way I could think of to stay tied to both of them."

I frowned. The waitress interrupted us. I don't remember ordering, only that she brought me sausage and eggs ten minutes later. I couldn't wait for her to go away so that I could ask him:

"Are you and Mama married?"

His answer no longer surprised me. "No, and it wasn't such a big deal to me. I'd been in one relationship and it had lasted a while. When I figured it was over, I started another. Trouble was, I missed my boys, but when I tried going back to them, I missed Jolene and your mom. I made the situation myself- I know that- but I could never make myself pay for it. I couldn't give any of you up."

The waitress returned and pushed a plate underneath my nose. I kept my head down and looked at it rather than look at my father. I didn't feel angry exactly, so much as knocked down. I tried to turn the implications of it over in my head- what it meant that my parents weren't married. I wondered if my birth certificate was stamped with a red "illegitimate".

"You ain't talking," my father said.

"I'm thinking," I told him.

"Eat your food while you think."

My head shot up.

"You think you can boss me around. You may as well get over that right now. How am I supposed to look to you for anything- I don't even know who you are."

That made him angry. I could see it in his eyes. He'd been trying to hold it together since I walked out of the kitchen on him, but he was about to lose it.

"You know exactly who I am, little girl. I'm the one who's still going to turn you over his knee if you give me any more of your lip, if you keep staying out late, disobeying me, and sneaking around with that hood."

"In somebody's father's eyes, you're the hood. You'd best remember that," I said. "You ready to go to work? I ain't all that hungry."

"Finish your food." He had to get one more attempt at an order in. "I paid for that."

And I ate it because he told me to. I knew him well enough to know that the way he'd lived after the Crash never really left him. Breakfast in a restaurant was a luxury and the man who bought it was to be respected for his generosity.

I shoved a forkful of eggs in my month and regarded him with hard eyes. I swallowed and then I tested him:

"I ain't going to summer school," I said. "I've been done since the first day."

My father was ever-full of surprises.

"Good. You didn't need to be there," he said. "Finish your food."

And we never said another word about it.


	12. Chapter 12

SE Hinton owns the Outsiders and Tim Shepard.

**Boys of Summer- Twelve**

"So he doesn't even care that you're not in summer school?"

Of all the little stunts I pulled in attempts to outshine Sylvia, this is what it took to make her jealous.

"I'm guessing my mother would feel differently," I said, "but apparently there's a lot that we don't tell my mother."

"Holy shit," Sylvia said.

We were walking in the shade of a building downtown towards an arcade called Bennie's. My parents forbid me to go there because there were a lot of fights and someone was always selling weed in the hallway where the restrooms were. Sylvia and I went there all the time. It was on her list of places to look for Dally.

Since Dally lived from place to place and didn't really have parents to speak of, he also didn't have a phone number where he could be reached. It was another one of those elements to their relationship that Sylvia claimed drove her nuts but I figured she really liked for its element of adventure. If she wanted Dally for something, she had to go on a journey and find him.

We would probably spend the day looking for Dally. When we found him, he and Sylvia would get in a fight because he hadn't been at any of the fifty other places we'd looked. Then they'd probably break up for a few hours.

"And your mom knows about all this?" Sylvia asked with wonderment.

"Not about the summer school, I don't think."

"But about your dad's other wife?"

"Seems that way."

I was tired of talking about it. A key piece of what I understood to be my identity had been altered, and it was making me tired. I felt like looking for Two-Bit. He'd be happy to spend the day fooling around, I figured, and I didn't feel like talking. Trouble was Two-Bit was nearly as difficult to find as Dally.

When we got to Bennie's we found Tim Shepard there instead. He was sitting in a back corner booth with another guy who I figured for a dealer. I gave Tim a weak wave. He winked back at me.

From over my shoulder, Bennie shouted at Tim, "Hey, you want to be in here, you got to buy something. There's no loitering."

Tim rolled his eyes and motioned for me to buy him a Coke. I turned back to Bennie.

"I need another Coke," I said.

"What are you- his slave?"

I didn't have anything to say to that. I figured Bennie was just mad because now Tim wasn't going to have to leave.

I took my Coke and Tim's over to his table. Sylvia was asking around for Dally somewhere. I looked for her, but she had stepped outside and was talking to a group of kids hanging out around the fire hydrant.

"And I thank you," Tim said. Then he turned to his friend and pointed at me with his bottle. "This is Cammy Leigh Davenport."

The other guy nodded and leaned back in the booth. He stretched out his hand to me.

"He wanted to know your name," Tim explained and I started to feel not-very comfortable.

"Are you going to tell me his?" I asked Tim.

"You could ask him. I think that's what he wants anyway."

I smirked at them and shook my head.

"I ain't got time. If he wants attention so bad, then he can work for it."

I don't know why I said it. Of course now the guy was going to put some effort into it. Guys love a mouthy girl.

I started towards the door to catch up with Sylvia.

I heard his voice say, "Luke."

Against my better judgment I tuned back and said, "Huh?"

"Luke," he repeated. "Like Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John."

I said to Tim, "Is he the religious sort, Shepard?"

"I don't know. I told him to try that angle with you, knowing your people and all."

I don't know how Tim knew about my mother and her church. Not like he'd ever be caught dead there.

Luke looked confused. Tim had clearly told him no such thing about me.

I continued backing away towards the door.

"Good to meet you, Luke," I said, and evacuated Bennie's.

"Who's that? He's cute," Sylvia said to me.

"Tim's buddy Luke," I said. "Not really my type."

"Why the hell not? It's not like you're married to Two-Bit or something. Not to ask him anyway."

I scowled. "What's that supposed to mean?"

"Come on, Cammy, he's Two-Bit."

Sylvia was finished questioning the kids hanging around Bennie's. She had all the Intel she was going to gather and was ready to move on. I needed more answers though.

"Meaning what?" I asked her again. "I ain't my mom, Sylvia. I ain't putting up with that kind of shit the way she does."

"I don't know, Cammy. I've heard stuff, but I don't know anything for sure. Just let's go."

I began to follow her.

"Well what have you heard then?"

"Only that him and Kathy…you know Kathy, right? That she says they ain't all the way broken up. They never really are. God, she's the one I don't understand. Always waiting in the wings, back with him as soon as he skips out on the last girl. Don't look at me like that. I tried to warn you. I _did_ warn you."

All of the sudden, I didn't feel like finding Two-Bit and making out all afternoon. I felt like going back and getting to know this Luke guy better. That, I knew, would be a mistake. Those kind of guys were never the kind to take "slow down, hold up" for an answer.

"If we find Dally, he'll know," Sylvia said. "He can tell you what Two-Bit's been up to."

I didn't really care. I wasn't like Sylvia- I knew it then for sure. The thrill of the hunt didn't do anything for me. I didn't want to play games. I didn't want to spend my time alone, sick with wondering.

"That's alright. I don't really care," I said to Sylvia.

She stopped and looked me over.

"The hell you don't."

"I mean, I care, but I don't care to be involved in it. If he wants Kathy and twenty other girls just like her, he can have 'em. I ain't going to lose any sleep over it."

"Yeah, you are," Sylvia said. She grinned at me. She knew me well enough to know that I was broken up over it even if I sounded cool and collected.

"Alright, I will lose sleep. I will be crushed and woeful and heartbroke for a few days, but I ain't going to tolerate it."

"Good girl," Sylvia said. She yanked me by my arm and we continued along, wrapped up in her and Dally's little game.

* * *

I was glad when we found Dally before it got too hot. He was sitting on the extracted backseat of an abandoned Ford in a vacant lot in Darry Curtis' neighborhood. He was sharing a cigarette with Johnny Cade, whose face still looked like someone had put it through a meat grinder.

"How's it going, Johnny?" I asked.

Dally glared at me like to was a stupid question.

"How's it look like it's going?"

I was just fired up enough about Two-Bit to not be interested in taking Dally's shit.

"I didn't ask you, Dally. I said 'how's it going, Johnny'."

Johnny said, "It's going alright."

He didn't look alright at all. His fingers shook as he held the cigarette. Just me and Dally raising our voices had riled him.

"Ain't you supposed to be in summer school?" Dally asked us.

I smirked. "Ain't we all supposed to be there?"

"Christ, what's got you in a mood this morning?"

"She's just decided that she's tired of Two-Bit," Sylvia told him.

I would have preferred to keep that between me and Two-Bit.

"Maybe I have, maybe I haven't. Jesus, Syl. Keep it to yourself."

"Why?" Dally asked. "What'd Two-Bit do? Or who did Two-Bit do? Someone other than yourself, I'd guess?"

Johnny shifted on the seat.

"I don't know," I told Dally. "I just don't like wasting my time wondering."

"Probably that Kathy chick," Dally said. "She doesn't ever go away completely."

"God, is everyone privy to this information but me?"

"We're making you privy to it now," Dally told me, grinning. He took the cigarette back from Johnny.

"Whatever," I said. I tossed up my hands and took a few steps back. "If you see him, tell him I went back to Bennie's to get to know Luke or Mark or John or whatever his name is better. Tell him I'm out in the world and making friends."

Going back to Bennie's was the last thing on my mind. I was aware that I was playing games now- just like Dally and Sylvia spent all their time doing- but I didn't care. I didn't like my affairs being so public. I felt like a fool.

"Hey, Cammy, you can't walk back there alone."

It was Johnny's voice. He was up on his feet and following me. I looked at his bruised face, but I wasn't feeling quite mean enough to ask if he thought he was going to protect me. I just kept walking and let him catch up.


	13. Chapter 13

SE Hinton owns The Outsiders.

**Boys of Summer- Thirteen**

Johnny shoved his hands into his pockets and walked fast next to me.

"I don't think you should listen to them, Cammy," he said. "Two-Bit's a good old guy."

I choked back a bitter laugh. Everyone knew what kind of guy Johnny Cade was- _he_ was the good old guy. He was the one who looked up to all the hoods with wide-eyed admiration because he didn't have the guts to pull half of the shit with girls the guys like Two-Bit and Dally did. He wanted to- you could see it in his eyes sometimes- but he was just too shy. Guys like Tim Shepard didn't even know he was there.

"I'll figure it out with Two-Bit," I told him. "I ain't going to go find some weirdo and fool around on him. I just didn't want to talk about it with Syl and Dally anymore. I kinda just want to go home."

As soon as I said it, I remembered that my mother was there, and I didn't want to be around her all day. I didn't think I'd be able to resist asking about my birth certificate. It made me wonder.

"I got other things to do," I said to Johnny.

"Like what?"

"I got to go to the court house."

"What's in the court house?"

"My birth certificate. I want to see it."

"You think they'll let you? You ain't eighteen. What do you need to see it for anyway?"

"Morbid curiousity."

Johnny was silent. I figured he wasn't sure what 'morbid' meant. He was a sweet guy and street smart, but he'd never been to school a solid week in his life.

"What're you so curious about?" He asked me.

"My parents ain't married. They never have been I've just come to find out. I want to see if my birth certificate says I'm a bastard. Or if I even have my dad's last name. My last name might be Carter and not Davenport."

Johnny shot me a shy grin. "Then we'd have homeroom together."

"If you ever went to school."

I felt bad as soon as I said it, but when I looked at Johnny he was still grinning. He kept following me- along for the ride- all the way downtown to the court house.

* * *

The cavernous stairwell in the court house made Johnny nervous. I could feel his body tighten up when we got inside.

"Don't worry," I said to him. "It ain't like we're here to get married or anything."

"There's your solution," he told me. "We'll spread it around that you and me went to the court house together and let that get back to Two-Bit."

"Yeah, that's the solution."

I smiled at him, though. Johnny was pleased with himself for being so devious.

We climbed the stairs to the second floor and walked down the hall to the Register of Deeds. I told Johnny he could sit outside and wait if he wanted.

"You embarrassed? Hell, Cammy, you got nothing to be embarrassed of. My parents are married, but they shouldn't be. All's they do is torture each other."

I nodded. He followed me into the office.

The woman behind the counter looked. She looked from me to Johnny and back and said, "The Clerk of Courts is down the hall."

"No, ma'am," I said. Next to me I could feel Johnny grinning. "I'm here to see my birth certificate. I'd like to look at it."

"Do you have identification?"

I nodded and found my driver's license- the one my father hardly let me use.

The woman took a look at it, nodded, and retreated into her room full of filing cabinets.

Johnny asked me, "How'd you get a driver's license? Didn't you have to have your birth certicate?"

"Baptismal record, and you can put any name you want on that. Plus, my dad was with me."

The woman behind the counter found my birth cerficate in the D's, which was a relief to me. Her lips were set in a hard line when she brought it to me, though. She knew what piece of information I was looking for.

And there it was. Under 'father's name' was the word 'illegitimate'. They'd given me my father's last name, but hadn't put him on the birth certificate.

I thanked the lady and went back into the hall with Johnny.

"So what does that mean?" Johnny asked.

"It means he's not legally my father," I told him. "He's got no claim to me. He can't tell me what to do."

Another family argument came to mind. My dad hadn't been so sure he liked Dale Hamill when he first met him. I remembered Jolene telling him he didn't have any say it in. I thought she'd meant it was because she was old enough and she'd marry Dale if she wanted. Now, I suspected she was throwing this in his face too.

Now I also understood why my mother was so keen that my father stop seeing Judy. It probably felt like cheating to her- and it did me, too- but it was also a constant reminder that if he left we would have nothing. It was a gift every day that my father stuck around and brought home his paycheck. If he left, we would be cut off and my mother would have no way of supporting us.

"You can't tell anyone," I said to Johnny, even though Sylvia and Dally had had time enough to tell half of Tulsa by now.

"I won't," Johnny said.

He was looking at me with his timid eyes. Johnny Cade- whose parents only stopped hitting him long enough to take a swing at one another- was a step up on the social ladder from me now. I wondered if he was thinking it too.

"I got to go," I said. "Thanks for walking me."

"You sure are determined to go be by yourself, Cammy. Where are you going? I can walk you."

"Thanks, Johnny. I think I'm just going home. It's just a few blocks."

"You're really going home?" He didn't trust me anymore than Two-Bit or Jolene.

I nodded. I was going back to the building, but I already knew that I was going to skip our apartment and head up to the eighth floor to think on this a while.

* * *

It seemed I was going to have to cross hell and high water to get some peace, though. When I got up to the abandoned eighth floor of my building, it wasn't abandoned. My sister Meg was sitting in one of the window wells looking out over the city.

"What're you doing up here?" I asked her. "It's kind of hot."

"Daddy came home at lunch and they had it out. I just came up here because I didn't want to listen to them. What'd he do this time?"

I sat down on the dusty floor, facing out across the empty room, so she couldn't see my face.

"I don't know. Probably went out and had a drink somewhere. You know how she gets about that."

I hated myself for making it sound like it was all on my mother, but I didn't want to have to tell Meg the truth.

Meg asked, "what if she leaves him?"

"She won't."

"What if she does?"

"They'd toss her out of that church of hers."

"You sound like Daddy, Cammy. I like mom's church."

I had never liked my mother's church. Some of their rituals scared me, and I always got the feeling that people were looking at me like I didn't really belong there. I figured now I knew why.

Outside in the stairwell, there were footsteps. Meg shifted in her perch. I didn't bother to get up.

The door to the stairs opened and there was my father. He was dusty and still wearing his work clothes.

"What are you two doing?" He asked us, and then said to me, "You running your mouth?"

I shook my head. He looked apologetic.

"You two come with me," he said.

Remembering that he couldn't legally make me do anything, I asked, "Why?"

"Because I'm asking you real nice, Camille, and that's only going to happen once."

Megan was up and on her feet, ready to follow. I took my time- watching him with angry eyes and making him wait.

We followed him down the stairs to our apartment where our mother was sitting on the kitchen table. My father closed the door behind us and motioned to the couch. Megan went and sat down. I stayed where I was.

My father said to my mother, "Well, go on and tell them."

"Your father is going to move out for a while," she said, looking straight at him when she said it. "He has some decisions to make and I want him to move out until he's finished making them. You two will stay with me. Everything will be fine."

"When are you coming back?" Meg asked my dad.

My mother answered, "When he's figured out what he needs to figure out."

"A couple of weeks," My father said. "It'll be just like when I'm gone on a crew. Just a couple of weeks."

"Except you won't be on any crew," I said. "You'll be staying right here in town with your other woman."

It just slipped out, and once it had all I wanted to do was run. Everything I'd told myself about protecting my little sister had just flown right out the window.

There was silence. I expected to get slapped by one of them, but neither my mother nor my father made a move. Even Meg didn't make sound although wanting to know what the hell I was talking about had to be burning her up inside.

Finally, my mother said, "Camille, I think you need to take a walk."

"I'll walk with her," My father said.

My mother shook her head. "No, Ron, you're going to have a talk with Megan. Cammy, I'm going to call your sister. You are to walk straight to her house, cool your head, and stay there. It takes fifteen minutes. If you aren't there, Jolene will call the police. I know they know you."

My eyes widened. How did my mother know _that_? I'd been looking every day for my court summons and hadn't seen it. Did Jolene tell? Had my mother gotten to the mail before me one day?

I said, "Yes, ma'am."

I picked up my purse. My mother stood up and went to the door with me. She was going to have to use Mrs. Mackner's phone or the payphone at the end of the block to call Jolene. She intended to use the payphone, I guess, because she took her coin purse and followed me all the way down to the street.

My mother was a thousand times worse than my father when she was angry. If my dad and I were going to fight, then we fought. He couldn't keep his mouth shut to save his soul. My mother reigned over me with silence. She didn't say a word while she walked me to the end of the block. It was like she'd never been ashamed of her relationship with my father until that moment and now I'd broken her heart over it.

She stepped into the phone booth without looking at me and shut the door. I waited for her to tell me again- I wanted her to say anything- but she didn't. She just expected that I would go.

And I did.

a/n: The laws surrounding the rights of the children of unwed mothers in the US were very different before 1970. In 1965, Cammy and her sisters would have been denied basic civil rights under the 14th Amendment. They would have had no claim to inheritance to any of their father's property. Their mother would have been unable to collect for Aid to Dependent Children (welfare) for them. Illegitimate children were considered to be more prone to maladjustment, psychological disorders, and deviant behavior. Of course, there was no research to back this up, but it was the widely-held social belief.


	14. Chapter 14

SE Hinton owns them.

**Boys of Summer- Fourteen**

I got maybe three blocks before Two-Bit came along in his car. I heard it before I saw it and the sound made me cringe. I tried to make like I hadn't seen him, but he pulled up to the curb and called out to me.

"Hey, Cammy…Hey, little Miss I Listen to Everything Sylvia Tells Me…are you going to talk to me, or what?"

I turned around.

"Not now, Two-Bit. I have to get to my sister's. I'm in deep shit. They threw me out of the house and I'm supposed to go to Jolene's."

"Then I'll give you a ride. Get in here."

I sighed and walked over to his car. I tugged on the door and he pushed from the inside. I got in and slammed the door. He pulled away from the curb with a jerk.

Before we were back in traffic, he started in:

"So, yeah, what's this about you ditching me over some bullshit Sylvia told you? I ain't back with Kathy. I ain't seen Kathy since…since before I started taking you out. You know how Sylvia likes to stir up shit between her and Dally. I'd think you'd be smart enough to realize when she's trying to start it between us too. Jesus, Cammy, are you even listening to me?"

"Not really," I told him.

"Well, fine, then. I can see your sister's place. Do you want me to just let you out here? Am I supposed to call you or come by or are we just done?"

He pushed down hard on the brakes, pumped a couple of times, and did it again. The car stopped.

"Do what you want," I said to him. "Thanks for the ride."

I was in a fog. I think I had just broken up with him, but I wasn't really sure. I wondered how my parents navigated a relationship as complicated as theirs. I couldn't even handle casually dating Two-Bit.

Before I could get out of the car, though, he tugged on my arm and pulled me back.

"Hey, Cammy," he said. "Look at me for a second, will you?"

I looked.

Two-Bit said, "It might be just me, but I get the impression you ain't really thinking here."

I shook my head. He nodded back.

"Okay, well, allow me to take advantage of that, if you will. Let's you and me go for a ride. Tell me what's got you so worked up."

"Jo's supposed to call the cops if I don't show up there. My mom knows about court. I don't know how she knows, but she knows."

"Then you're already sunk. Come on."

He grinned at me. He cocked that eyebrow when I took my time deciding and it almost made me smile. The truth of it was that I would have loved to talk to my sister right then, but I was feeling weak. I didn't really want to break up with Two-Bit and I figured he'd say to hell with it if I didn't go with him.

I shut the door again.

"That's better," Two-Bit said. "Let's go get you a Coke or a beer."

We didn't say much in the car. I told him I'd done something awful- meaning letting it slip to Megan about our parents- that I couldn't take back. I surprised myself there. I could've told him that my dad was a rat and my mom was spineless, but I told him it was me who screwed up. I guess we all screwed up, but it was me who threw it all out there and left my parents no choice in how to deal with it. My dad was right- some things would never be my business.

Two-Bit drove us to this roadhouse on the far north side called Buck's. I blushed a little when I saw it. I wondered if that's what he thought: that we were going to get a room- that he was going to let me cry on his shoulder and then I was going to let him into my pants. At the moment, I wasn't feeling very rebellious.

He got out of the car and opened the door for me from the outside. I followed him across the gravel. When we got inside, he steered me to a table, though, and not up the stairs. I accepted his offer of a beer, but just played with the label on the bottle when he brought it to me.

"So what'd you do that's so vile?" He asked me.

He sat, leaning back in his chair with his arm stretched around the back of mine. He could see the whole bar from his seat, even though there wasn't much going on to watch. I think it was more of a habit, his sitting that way.

I shrugged and told him, "I let go with a deep, dark family secret that I had no business telling my sister."

"About your parents not being married? Dally knows all about that and you weren't going to tell me?"

"What's worth hearing? I'm illegitimate. Johnny and I walked down to the courthouse to check it out. We saw my birth certificate."

"You went to the courthouse with Johnny…?"

I grinned. "Yeah, he said he'd rub that in if I was mad at you. Make it sound like he and I got married by a Justice of the Peace or something."

"And why are you mad at me again?"

I let my head drop down and shook it at the table.

"Because I was listening to Sylvia. I guess you can't be all bad, can you? If you're here hiding an underage girl who's probably got the cops out after her."

"I can never refuse a little adventure," he said, then paused and took it back. "Adventure of this sort. I can refuse all kinds of adventure…the kind that involves girls like Kathy and Sylvia. I can refuse that. I'm quite capable."

I smirked and tried to hide it by taking a sip of my beer. I set the bottle back down.

"I don't think I really like beer," I told him.

"Give it here then. You want a Coke?"

"Just a glass of water."

"You don't want to drink that water. I'll get you a Coke."

He got up from his chair with a bounce. I watched him walk back across the bar. He looked good from that side and from the front coming back towards me. I knew, then, that I sure didn't love him and I wasn't always going to want to put up with his antics. I liked him though. Maybe that's how Judy got to feel about my father. My mother- that was different. She truly loved him.

I pulled my purse out of my lap and set it on the table.

"I ought to call my sister," I said. "If she hasn't called the Calvary yet, she'll cover for me."

Two-Bit gestured in the direction of a payphone in the next section of the bar. I made my way back to it and asked the operator for my sister's line.

"Well, well, well," Dale's voice answered.

"Do you work?" I asked him. I knew damned-well he did, just on contract like my father. Sometimes he was gone for weeks at a time. He liked to tell people he was a spy. "It's the middle of the afternoon."

"I know damned-good and well what time it is, little girl. It's exactly twenty-seven minutes after your mother called and said you'd be here in ten minutes. You know what time that makes it?"

"Time for me to go to jail?"

"Again? No, not today. It's time for you to start kissing your dear brother-in-law's ass since he talked your dear sister into giving you a little time to think things through. Where you at?"

"In a bar. I'm sure you know it."

I could feel Dale smirking. "Well, then you've had enough time. You want me to come get you?"

"I think he'll drive me."

"Him again, huh? Have I told you how boys are no good, Cammy Leigh? Christ, they're almost as bad as little sisters."

"I'll be there, Dale. Hold 'em off for me just a little bit longer, okay?"

I hung up the phone and went back to Two-Bit. I didn't sit down.

"I got to go to my sister's. Her old man's going to bat for me, keeping her from calling me in as an abductee. He's always cool to me. I ain't going to get him in any trouble."

Two-Bit nodded. He leaned forward and put his hands on my hips and lay his forehead against my belly. It was probably the most intimate way anyone had ever touched me and I had to fight not to squirm away from it. Maybe it was the stress, or maybe because I was sixteen and realizing that I wanted was to play the field and not pay any consequences.

* * *

Dale was waiting on the front step smoking a cigarette.

"No shit- that's your brother-in-law?" Two-Bit asked. "I know him. I seen him fight. He's cool as hell."

"He has his moments."

"You think I can kiss you with him standing there?"

I shrugged. "You said you'd seen him fight."

"Good point."

He brought the car to a full stop, though, and got out and shook Dale's hand.

"You, huh?" Dale said to Two-Bit. "Holy Christ."

I rolled my eyes at him and he flicked ashes at me. I went inside to find Jolene.

"Jig's up, Jo," I called out to her. "In more ways than one, but I need your advice on the whole court thing. Mom knows I wasn't at your place all night."

Jolene was standing over the stove. She turned to face me and crossed her arms across her chest.

"You're pretty goddamn cavalier, Cammy. Mom's throwing him out."

"She said it was just for a while, until he thought about things."

"And you know what that means, right? She's making him choose. What if he doesn't choose her…and us?"

"They did this before, and he chose us."

"They did this before and he kept sneaking around."

"Why doesn't he just marry her?" I snapped. I sat down at the table. Jolene turned away.

"Because her dumb church won't have him, and she won't get married anywhere else. It ain't real to her unless it's in her church."

I rolled my eyes. "How is it real now, exactly?"

"Who the hell knows?" Jolene said. "I don't get them either. All's I know is I told the Genius outside there that I wanted to see him sign his name on the dotted line. I didn't care about any church wedding; I wanted it to be legal. I wasn't having any damned kids until that happened, and I knew Dale wanted kids."

I smiled at that. I couldn't help myself. Dale seemed like a big kid himself.

"Cammy, just stay out of their nonsense, alright? Just keep your mouth shut and tow the line and let them sort it out. I can't even imagine how upset Meg is right now. God, and you know a part of me thinks it serves them right- you're a hundred times more trouble than I ever was, and they thought I wrote the book on trouble."

"They'd better buckle down and get ready for Megan, then. We seem to be getting worse."

Jolene grinned and nodded. She stood on her toes and peeked out the window.

"Who's he out there with?"

"Two-Bit. My boyfriend."

It felt weird to say the word _boyfriend_ out loud, like I was jinxing it or something.

"He's cute," Jolene said. "Where have I seen him before?"

"Probably in a bar somewhere."

"Well, that's a good sign. Dale's supposed to take you home. You ready?"

I shrugged.

"What about the court date?"

"Well, if just she knows and she's tossing Dad out for a while, then it's just her you'll have to tangle with. Worst case is she's been hiding it from you and the court date's already past. I wouldn't put it past her. Then you'd have to sit the time. And to make you sit time would be very much like Mom. Eye-for-an-eye shit just the way she likes it."

"Shit," I grumbled and stood up.

The clock on Jolene's stove said it was five o'clock. If Dale drove me straight home, I'd have a little less than an hour to contend with my mother before Mrs. Mackner had to go to work and I had to go downstairs.

I gave Jolene a small salute and she poked a warning finger at me, reminding me to behave myself. I went outside and pushed Dale off the step and towards the car.

I didn't kiss Two-Bit good-bye, but I made it clear to him that I would be at work after six o'clock. He winked like he understood.


	15. Chapter 15

SE Hinton owns The Outsiders and Two-Bit.

**Boys of Summer- Fifteen**

Without my father, the apartment seemed silent and airless. It didn't help that no one was speaking to me. Dale walked me up. My mother said, "hello, son," to him when we came through the door, but didn't say a word to me.

I went to my room. Megan was sitting on her bed reading, but she got up and left when I came in. I sat down on my bed and stewed. _Fine_, I figured, _if they didn't want me here then I'd leave_. I'd pack some stuff in my book bag and take off in the morning when Mrs. Mackner came home from work.

I spent the next hour before work trying to imagine where I would go, but I came up empty. I went to Mrs. Mackner's without a word to my mom or my sister and with nothing but books in my book bag.

Our building being what it was, even Mrs. Mackner seemed to know something was up. She asked how my mother was and seemed disappointed when I said fine.

The girls were well-behaved but the minutes until their bedtime dragged. Inara went to sleep first and I sat on the couch holding Kim in my lap waiting for her to doze off. When she did, I laid her on Mrs. Mackner's bed and waited for Two-Bit.

I was starting to believe he wouldn't show when- around eleven- there was a soft tap at the door.

He ducked inside and gave me a kiss on the cheek. He'd had a couple- I could smell it on him, but he seemed like he was in a good enough mood. As if to prove my suspicions, he pulled a can of Grain Belt out of his inside jacket pocket.

"You look like you could use one of these," he said, offering it to me.

I shook my head. "That's the last thing I need, but thanks."

He flopped down on the couch.

"Come 'ere," he said and pulled me down with him. "It can't be that bad. They'll fight it out and he'll be back in a few days."

I caught myself before I could remind him that his parents fought and then his dad never came back. I let him kiss me instead. He pulled my shirt up over my head and tugged a blanket down over us. Everything had a weight of sadness to it. I wasn't that into what we were doing; I just wanted the time to pass. Two-Bit fiddled with my bra, gave up, and went for the zipper on my skirt instead. I suppose I was lucky- for once- that we weren't any more unclothed than that when the next knock came at the door.

"Shit," I hissed. I couldn't imagine who it might be. My question was answered when the next knock came followed by my mother's voice:

"Camille? Cammy, wake up. I need you."

Two-Bit sat up fast. He buckled his belt and tried to make the blanket look semi-folded. I was on my own with my skirt and blouse. I buttoned them on the way to the door. If I'd had any sense, I've told Two-Bit to get in the bathroom. He was still sitting there on the couch like a bump on a log when I opened the door.

My mother looked strange. She'd been crying- that was easy to see- and her eyes seemed to be darting in every direction at once, looking for something she expected to see but didn't find.

"What's wrong, Mama?"

"Well, add that to an ever-growing list," she said, glaring at Two-Bit on the couch with his can of beer. She said to me, "I can't find your sister. I went to take a bath and she must have slipped out. She's very upset, Camille. I looked…"

"Did you go upstairs?"

"Of course I did. She isn't in the building. She took her purse and her key. She's gone." Again, she turned to Two-Bit. "You have a car, don't you?"

"Yes, ma'am."

"You two go and find her. I'll stay here with the babies. You find her and I will forget whatever this is that I walked in on. I won't tell her father. We'll never say another word about. Just please find Megan."

I nodded. Two-Bit was already up and behind me, pushing me towards the door. I stopped and asked my mother, "Where is Daddy? Shouldn't we…?"

"I don't' know where he is," she said. I didn't believe her. All the way down the hall, I was thinking how this must all be part of some plot by my mother. Her promising me that she wouldn't tell my father about Two-Bit only made me want to find my dad and come clean. All of us lying to each other hadn't taken us too far.

"Where would she go?" Two-Bit asked me when we got to the car.

"I don't know. She's fourteen. We don't go to any of the same places."

"Would she go to your other sister's?"

I shook my head. "She might go to Bennie's. We're not supposed to be there so she thinks it's the coolest place ever. He's open till midnight, ain't he?"

Two-Bit nodded. He started up the car, but it died. He pumped the gas a few times and started it again. We roared away from the curb.

Bennie's was only open for another fifteen minutes and Bennie was doing his best to shoo everyone out early. He wasn't being too successful at it. A group of girls was clinging to the back wall. The corner booth was still full of guys playing cards. One of them was Tim Shepard. His pal Luke was still there too. He cracked a grin when he saw me, but then rolled his eyes when he saw Two-Bit.

Two-Bit and I ignored them all. We scanned the faces of the kids. Two-Bit asked Bennie:

"Man, you seen a little girl in here? Like a middle-schooler. She's got dark hair and a smart mouth, like this one…"

He gestured to me. Bennie looked baffled.

"That one's blonde," he said.

"I know this one's blonde," Two-Bit said. "Her sister has dark hair. Have you seen her?"

"I don't know, man," Bennie shrugged. "This place was full of kids tonight."

"What's going on, Cammy Leigh?" Tim called to me without looking up from his cards.

"Have you seen my little sister in here tonight, Shepard?"

"The one that's my sister's age? She's a little young for me. If I did, I didn't commit it to memory. What's the problem?"

It sounded stupid to tell Tim my sister had run away from home. Tim Shepard hardly went home at all, and- from what I'd heard- he had a hell of a lot more reasons to run away than Meg or I.

"We can't find her, and it's getting a little late."

"It is," Tim said.

"Well, do you have any idea…where would your sister go?"

"My sister would go where I told her," Tim said. Someone snorted at that. Tim raised a finger in their direction.

I felt Two-Bit tug on my hand.

"Come on, Cammy," he said. "She ain't here. Maybe she went looking for your old man."

"I don't know where he is."

"We can try the A-Pine again. Or…doesn't he go have a few when he gets out from under your mom?"

I nodded.

"Well, places to have a few are kind of my specialty. I've seen him around before. God, no wonder he loves me so…anyway, there's a couple…"

I shook my head. I stepped away from Two-Bit and asked Bennie for a phonebook.

"I'm closed," he said.

"Give her the goddamned phonebook," Two-Bit told him, and Bennie did.

I searched my mind trying to remember my half-brothers last name. I'd met them only a couple of times. Their names were Alan and Mike. Alan and Mike Davis. I flipped through the phonebook. There were about a hundred Davis', but Judy's name was among them.

I went back to the payphone with Two-Bit on my heels. I asked the operator for Judy's number.

She sounded wide awake when she answered which told me maybe I was on the right trail.

"Ma'am, this is Cammy- Ron's daughter. We can't find my little sister. I need to talk to my dad."

She didn't try to bullshit me. There was no _what makes you think he's here_. She turned away from the phone and called out, "Ronnie, it's your girl."

I heard my father say, "Which one?"

"The one I met- Cammy."

He took the phone from her and said, "What?"

"We can't find Megan. She ran away."

"She's probably at Jo's."

"Then call Jolene, Daddy. She ain't there. It would've been the first- or second- place Mom looked."

"Where's your mother then?"

"Watching Mrs. Mackner's kids. She sent Two-Bit and me 'cause he has a car…"

I heard my father growl. He didn't say anything intelligible, just made a noise. I could visualize him running his fingers through his hair.

"Where are you?"

"At this hang-out, this pool hall called Bennie's, but it's going to close. All the kids come here, and you told us we couldn't, so we thought…"

"Yeah, because my daughters listen so damned well. First place you figured she went. Alright, alright. I know where it is. I'll meet you there in ten minutes. Wait outside."

I said okay and he hung up.

By that point, Bennie was serious with the hoods playing cards. He tossed all of us out, and they were all still hanging around- smoking, and shoving each other, and teasing the girls- when my father showed up. Tim and Luke both cocked their heads and looked him over, like they were trying to size them up. My father made a noise at them like he was shooing cats and they stepped back.

He shook hands with Two-Bit and then hunted a cigarette out of his shirt pocket.

"She probably went to a movie," he said. "Where's the closest movie house? She likes movies…what would she go see that started late?"

"Something girly- a musical or something with cool clothes."

"You're going to have to help me out with that, Camille," my father said.

"Elvis," Two-Bit offered. "Where's 'Paradise- Hawaiian Style' playing?"

I nodded. "The cheap theater. It's been out for a month. It's probably at the Dynamo."

"And where is that?" My father asked.

"About three blocks from our place."

He nodded and then said to Two-Bit, "Thank you for bringing her, son. Now you go on home. I'll take Camille with me."

Neither of us questioned him. Two-Bit just nodded. He gave me a kiss on the temple as I brushed by him. My father ignored it, and I suspected it was more for Tim and Luke's benefit than mine. He fell into the crowd with the other boys on the curb, and I doubted that he was going home any time soon.

I got into the car with my father.

"I was asleep on her couch," he said to me once we were moving.

"I don't care. I just want to find Meg and go home. You can go where ever."

"Christ," He grumbled under his breath. "I suppose, if I tell you I ain't happy about you being with that boy, I'll get an earful."

"Say what you want." I felt like we'd had this argument enough times already. I pointed for him to turn in the direction of the movie theater.

My father knew Meg well enough. The late, late showing of "Paradise- Hawaiian Style" was just letting out, and my sister was peeking out from underneath the marquee no doubt trying to figure out how she was going to sneak back into our apartment without getting caught. I wished she'd just come to me first- I could've given her a few ideas.

My father stopped the car. He put it in park and went to take the keys. I shook my head at him and got out first.

"Megan," I called to her. She looked relieved when she saw me, then terrified when she saw our car. "Yeah, busted. Mom's about lost her mind."

"Is he coming home?" She asked, peeking around me at my father in the car.

"Was that your brilliant plan? I don't know what he's doing. You and I are going home, though."

"I was really mad at you, Cammy, and then I realized what you said about him was true."

I tried to think what I had said about him.

"Well, whatever- he came back looking for you, didn't he?" I said. "It's not like he just took off."

She shrugged. She was beautiful in the glittering lights- more striking than either Jolene or me. My father had better come back home and stay, I thought, because Meg's going to be the most trouble of any of us.

"Come on," I said and took my sister's arm. I waved at my father to signal that we were going home. He stayed there in the parked car and watched us go. More than Meg's running away, I knew that had to be killing him- that I was taking her home without him, that I was handling it.

I realized then that my motives were the same as my sister's: I hadn't called my father because I needed him. I had wanted to show him that I didn't.


	16. Chapter 16

SE Hinton owns The Outsiders.

**Boys of Summer- Sixteen**

Two-Bit quit coming around. I guessed I was just too much trouble for him, or maybe he really was scared of my father. That didn't matter- my father didn't come around for two more weeks either.

When he did, Meg and I made like we were going to flee to the eighth floor, but I stayed behind when we got out into hall.

"What are you doing?" She hissed at me.

"I want to hear this," I said. "I'm staying here."

Megan rolled her eyes, but she couldn't resist. We sat down next to our door and listened.

He asked my mother to marry him, and she said no. She told him it didn't have anything to do with her church. It was because he was never going to quit seeing Judy. Seeing his boys, she said, was understandable but he had no reason anymore to be seeing _that woman_.

"We're still friends, Marie," my father said. "I don't know how to make you understand that. Everything we went through as kids…we're always going to be friends."

"What kind of message does that send your daughters, Ronnie? I keep wondering what they've gotten from all this- that I put up with it? What were they learning from that?"

"Jolene got married, and she don't put up with crap from that boy."

"Jolene's like a rock," my mother said. "She got lucky. She found a boy who can soften her up some. The other two…God, what do you think Camille is doing with herself these day? Do you think even she knows?"

I hurt me to hear her say that- it was like my mother had no faith in me whatsoever.

"She's adrift, Ronnie," my mother continued. "And I hate seeing her puppy-dog around looking for you. I know she went looking for you to help her find Megan. That's when it hit me- I don't want her following that damned boyfriend of hers around the way she follows you. All starry-eyed and putting up with whatever he dishes out because she thinks she has to. She learned that from me."

I stood up and walked away down the hall.

"Where are you going?" Megan whispered.

I waved my hand towards the stairwell. The lump in my throat made it impossible to speak.

* * *

Sylvia was in Bennie's, fresh off of a fight with Dally. She bought me a Coke and told me I looked like shit.

"Thank you," I said.

"Well, even looking like shit you must look good. Those two don't seem to mind." She nodded towards Tim and Luke- ever present in their back booth.

"I look vunerable," I told her. "They can spot it a mile away."

"What the hell is that supposed to mean?"

"As we speak, my mom is kicking my dad's ass to the curb because- according to her- I have learned all kinds of bad habits from watching their stupid relationship. He asked her to marry him, and she wouldn't."

"That's kind of cool," Sylvia said.

"I doesn't feel cool. I hate him sometimes, but I miss my dad when he's gone. Now he's going to be gone for good."

"He won't just take off for good. He ain't like Two-Bit's dad. Speaking of which, what's going on with you and Two-Bit?"

"I don't know," I said. "What have you heard?"

Sylvia grinned and shook her head. The squeal of bad brakes outside made us both look up. I looked at Sylvia.

"Did you conjure him? How did you do that?"

Two-Bit fought his car into park and then bounded out on to the curb. He came through the door and grinned when he saw me- as if he'd just seen me last night or the night before.

"Hey, kid, I went by your place. You know your little sister's just sitting in the hall? Anyway, I swiped something for you."

He handed me an envelope with a return address marked County of Tulsa.

"I heard they were serving everyone," He said. "I went by to tell you, but you weren't there, so I just swiped it."

"Isn't tampering with a mailbox a federal crime?" Sylvia asked him.

Two-Bit shrugged. "To hear her talk, Cammy'll get the death penalty if her old man finds out. I figured I'd take a chance."

I looked up at him and furrowed my brow. He confused me. He hadn't called me or shown his face in two weeks, and yet here he was stealing my mail to keep me one step ahead of my parents. Two-Bit wasn't much of a boyfriend, but maybe he was the illusive boy-friend that my parents and Dale and everyone claimed couldn't exist.

"Thanks," I said. "When do we have to appear?"

"I don't think you do," he told me. "You paid up, right? Sodapop Curtis didn't have to appear. All's he got was a notice saying he'd paid his fine. Shepard and me'll have to go because we of age. Right, Shepard?"

"Right what?" Tim shouted back.

"Clearly, he's overwrought about the whole thing," Two-Bit said to us. He yelled back at Tim, "You get your summons?"

"About one a week. Which one?"

"From the drag race."

"Hell, I sat for that already."

I tuned them out and opened the envelope. There is was- just like Two-Bit had said: just a receipt that I'd already paid my fine.

"You're a free woman, huh? What do you say- want to go celebrate?"

I nodded towards Sylvia. "I kind of…"

She kicked my ankle. "Just go. Dally'll be back in ten minutes, and then I'm ditching you."

"She was going to leave you alone with Shepard and what's-his-name? Jesus, Cammy…"

Sylvia nodded at Two-Bit and told him, "What's-his-name is named Luke, and I highly recommend you take Cammy out of here before I leave her to the slaughter."

"Is that so?" Two-Bit offered me his arm, which I took. I shot Sylvia a look and she winked at me. Sylvia was playing a game that I wasn't so sure I felt up to playing along with.

I followed Two-Bit out to his car. He didn't say a word until after he got the engine running again.

"So, what's with Luke?"

I shrugged. "You mean what's-his-name? Nothin's with Luke…" And then, to my surprise, I pulled a Sylvia: "We just talk sometimes. He's always in there with Shepard."

"Is he?" Two-Bit was on to me. He reminded me so much of Dale right then, I almost laughed out loud. "Well, we're just going to have to limit your time in there then, aren't we?"

"How do you plan on doing that by never calling and never coming around?"

"I came around just now, didn't I? Saved your pretty little ass in the process…in more ways than one, it sounds like."

I rolled my eyes and tried to look tuff. In truth, I was confused. Maybe my mother was right- I had no idea what I was doing with Two-Bit. One minute, I thought we were just being friendly, the next we were flirting. The flirting always seemed to land us in it up to our ankles.

"What?" He said.

"What?" I answered.

"You're deep in thought over there."

"That scare you?"

"Should it?"

"Where you been for two weeks?"

He laughed and stretched his arm out to pull me closer to him. I turned my back in and leaned against him.

"Well, I been in jail for a week of it- so all accounted for there. That's how I knew you were going to get your summons. The week before…well, sometimes I get the feeling you don't want me around."

"When you've got my shirt off and your hand up my skirt on the couch and I ain't putting up no kind of protest- you get the feeling I don't want you around?"

"Frankly, no. You're a strange one, Cammy. It's like you're there but you're not."

I sighed. Then I felt a wave of anger wash over me- anger at my mother for being dead on.

"I don't really know…"I said. "I don't know what we're doing, and if I did- I don't know what I want. And if I did, I'm afraid to bring it up because I'm afraid you don't want the same thing. All's I've ever seen is people dancing around and lying to each other, and they're all perfectly nice and lovable people, but…I don't know…"

I ran out of steam. Two-Bit was off-puttingly silent.

"So, I saw Kathy a couple of nights ago," he said. "I was sitting in Buck's place with Dal, and in she came and plopped herself down in my lap just like old times. Is this what you're getting at?"

I stiffened up, but didn't move away from him. I felt sick and I didn't want him to see my face.

Two-Bit continued, "Anyway, I said to her…I said, 'excuse me, ma'am, are you looking for somebody' and she gets all shrieky and says, 'Two-Bit Mathews, you know damned good and well I'm looking for you' and I told her, 'you know you really should ask before you bounce down in a guy's lap like that. It ain't polite and he might be spoken for and all'…"

I burst out laughing at that. "You're full of it. You did not say that."

"I did, honest to Christ, and you don't even want to know what she said in reply. Suffice to say it did the trick and I haven't seen her since. Did you get in a fight with Kathy or something?"

"I've never even met Kathy. Only know her to see her."

"Glory, she seems to think she knows you. And not the more flattering aspects of your personality either."

I tilted my head back and looked up at him. Two-Bit was grinning. He felt me looking and wiggled his eyebrows.

"I think Kathy's jealous," I said.

"What about you- are you jealous?"

"Nah, she's not really my type," I told him. I felt him snigger. I said, "If I'd been there to see it, I would've been steamed. Doesn't seem like there's much I can do about it now. Crap, I sound like my mom. We should go to Buck's."

He pulled me in a little closer, but still told me, "Call me a candy-ass, but I'm a little hesitant to take a girl to Buck's who's just told me she doesn't know what she wants."

"I know what I want. I want to be seen. All's we ever do is sneak around. I hear all these stories about your run-ins and adventures, but I never seem to be a part of them."

"There was that one time we went to jail together."

"I want more of that," I said.

"Oh, dear," Two-Bit said, but he drove us north on to the Ribbon and headed towards Buck's anyway.


	17. Chapter 17

SE Hinton owns The Outsiders.

**Boys of Summer- Seventeen**

"You work tonight?" Two-Bit asked me. "You have to be back?"

I shook my head. We were dancing. I had my arms laid over his shoulders and he had his thumb hooked over the top of my skirt in back. Ray Charles was playing on the jukebox. Buck's was near-empty, but a few of Tim Shepard's boys had wandered in for a game of pool.

The door opened and shut a few times, but we didn't pay any attention.

"Not tonight."

"You think your mama will call the cops if you don't show up for dinner?"

"I'll call her and tell her I'm going out for dinner. What's she going to do- send Megan after me?"

He pulled me in a little tighter and kissed me. I knitted my fingers into his hair and stood up on my toes, pushing harder against him.

I ignored the first tap on my shoulder. The second one was harder and I pulled away.

"I'm cuttin' in." It was Dale.

There was a brief, strange silent moment where he and Two-Bit looked at one another and I stood there looking back and forth between them. Two-Bit was bigger, but Dale-in spite of being the Dale that I knew- had an air of authority with Two-Bit. Two-Bit backed off. Dale took my hand in his and put the other high around my ribcage- the way we were taught to dance in gym at school.

I asked him the usual: "Do you work?"

"Off early," he said. "I had a vision or a premonition or one of them things. Something just told me I ought to stop in here on my way home. Your mom lose track of you again?"

"I was hanging out at Bennie's. At least I'm not at Bennie's anymore."

"Yeah, this is a step up. Believe me, I know all about what goes on here at two o'clock on a weekday afternoon. So does your sister."

"Yuck. I don't want to know."

"You look like you're about ready to find out. I'd be remiss if I didn't step in and tell you that I was here a couple of nights ago too."

I raised an eyebrow at him.

He continued: "Yeah, hell of a party. I wasn't much into the party. I was going to shoot a couple of games of pool with a buddy, but it got too noisy in here so we left. Seen your boyfriend on my way out though."

"I know, Dale. He told me."

"He tell you all about the girl he was with?"

My stomach began to tighten. Dale wouldn't be baiting me if there wasn't more to it than just Two-Bit chasing Kathy off of his lap. Ray Charles faded out in the background. The jukebox fell silent. I wished to God someone would put another nickel in just to make some noise.

"Yeah, he told me," I said, shrugging.

"So, you and him have…what do you call it? Like your parents do? An 'open relationship'? You ain't _that_ liberated, Cammy Leigh. What'd he tell you?"

I just shook my head. I peered over Dale's shoulder. Two-Bit was at the bar with his back to us, talking to Buck.

"He said he ran her off."

"Bullshit. Unless he was chasing her upstairs to run her off the roof. Ah, shit, don't cry. Not over him. Please do not cry." Dale brushed a tear off my cheek with his thumb. "I hate it when girls cry. You want me to lay him out?"

"Kind of," I said. "He's bigger than you though."

"I'll hit him with a bottle. He'll never see it coming."

Dale pressed his lips together in a mischievous smile. I wiped my eyes with the back of my hand.

"How about ice cream?" He offered. "How about we pretend you're still some kind of little kid and I can fix it with ice cream? Remember when you got all roughed up on the playground that one time?"

It wasn' the playground. I was in middle school and two girls jumped me by order of their River King brothers. Dale and Jolene were just dating then. No one else could get off work to come and get me. My dress was torn and I had a black eye, and I thought it was the worst thing in the world when Dale Hamill came from the high school to take me home. He took me out for ice cream and then we drove around for an hour and talked about how I was never going to get beat up at school again. He said he'd make sure of it, and I never did.

"What'd you do back then, Dale? I never did have any more trouble with those kids."

Dale shrugged. "Don't matter. What matters is that you know I ain't going to be able to jump in and save you if you're the one asking for trouble, Cammy Leigh. You coming or ain't you?"

I nodded. Dale and I walked towards the door.

"Hey," Two-Bit called after us. "Where are you going?"

"I'll tell you later," Dale said, and I knew- and Two-Bit probably knew- that he was going to get jumped.

* * *

"I don't really want a boyfriend," I said to Dale as we drove back towards town.

"Good," he replied.

"I ain't saying I never want to go out. I'm just saying I don't want to go steady. I don't want all the trouble that comes with it."

"You sounds like you sister. Look what happened to her."

"She did alright," I said and Dale shrugged.

We decided to forego the ice cream, and he let me off at Bennie's. Sylvia was still there. Either Dally had not yet returned or they'd already had another fight. I waved goodbye to Dale, and went inside.

"Uh, that was quick," she said to me.

"Nothing came of it. I'm done with him. He's still seeing Kathy."

"That son of a bitch," she mumbled.

"I should've seen it coming. He did disappear for two weeks."

"No, I mean that son of a bitch Dally," Sylvia said. "I grilled him good and he swore Two-Bit was staying clear of her."

"Where's old Dally now?" I asked.

"Lord only knows. I just turned down an invitation from the corner table on account that I didn't really want to be alone with them. Now that you're here, though…you want to make those two creeps buy us a Coke?"

I looked across the room. Tim and Luke were in their corner booth playing cards. Tim saw me looking and flipped me the bird. I clasped my hands to my heart to indicate- with sarcasm-that I was crushed by his gesture. He grinned and shook his head at his cards.

"Let's go," I said to Sylvia.

Luke had a shitty hand. I leaned over his shoulder and told him so.

"I'm just lulling him into a false sense of security," he told me. "You play?"

Tim answered for me, "I believe you once said you were a better poker player than you were a swimmer, Cammy Leigh."

"I believe that was you, Shepard, and that ain't saying much."

I sat down next to Luke. Sylvia sat down next to Tim, who regarded her with annoyance.

"It's going to get fuckin' hot today," Luke said. "Swimming don't sound like a half-bad idea."

"No," Sylvia said. "I ain't getting my hair wet."

I looked across the table at Tim and narrowed my eyes. I wondered what, if anything, he'd told Luke. Tim laid his cards out- two pairs- and Luke cursed under his breath. He tossed his down over Tim's.

"Well, what do you say? You want to blow this joint? Shepard, I believe I owe you some money if you want to put gas in that shit heap of yours."

As we left Bennie's, Luke already had his arm around me and I remember thinking to myself _I am never going to see this guy again after today_. I was wrong about that, but it turns out that mindset was exactly the way to approach a guy like Luke. It was like Sylvia and how she played with Dally- although not quite as volatile. Luke never raised his voice to me the way Dally did Sylvia. He played with my head plenty, but as long as we were on the same page with that I didn't really care.

_The End_

a/n:So_ that's the end. I wanted to make a story that lasted the summer, and now it's time for school to start here. Thank you to everyone who reads and reviews fan fiction._


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